Mahou Shoujo Homuro Magica: Final Jump
by Kiyomizu Yoshiko
Summary: In Goddess form, Madoka sees the ideal resolution, or so think Homura, who commits to one final jump to try and get everything right one last time.  Will she find a way to save Madoka, Sayaka, and Mami, and create a world without witches and their grief?
1. Chapter One: Final Jump

I do not own the canon characters or other content of this story, however I do own any and all original character which may or may not be introduced; all content copyright their respective owners. This work is not generated for profit, nor will profit be gained directly because of this work.

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><p>Chapter One: Final Jump<p>

My name is Mahou Shoujo Akemi Homura, but most people call me Akemi; the only person to call me Homura in a long time was Kaname Madoka. I'm a Mahou Shoujo, a Magical Girl. We trade our souls for one wish, in exchange for fighting monsters to collect energy for the Incubators, supposedly to counter the forces of entropy in the universe. That is the universe Madoka created with her wish.

Sometimes I see her in my dreams, talking to me, encouraging me when I'm lonely and congratulating me when I do well, telling me how proud she is that I'm protecting people, but lately her messages have been getting strange; I think she's trying to tell me what to do, but for some reason she can't. She's saying that she's lonely and that she misses me, and Kyoko, and Mami; that she can see all the timelines that I went through, and how she was going to fight alongside Mami in the last time we lived through together, that there was even one where we all lived.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"I thought that you were finished jumping between dimensions," Kyubey said as I appeared in my hospital bed.

"I thought that the whole universe was rebuilt, and that you wouldn't remember me," I replied angrily.

"I do not know what you are talking about," he replied. I threw off my covers, tossing them onto Kyubey. "I realize that you are angry, but we still must find a way to defeat the Walpurgisnacht."

I picked up my soul gem and held it out. Releasing my powers, I stopped time. "I don't know who or what you really are," I said knowing that he couldn't hear me, my voice seething and steady as I pulled a bomb from the dial on my arm and armed it, "and I really don't care." I removed the blanket from over him and stared into his eyes; as always, they were smiling. I placed the bomb in his mouth. "You lied to me. You lied to all of us. You knew all about this, about my wish and about what I was trying to do, and still you tried to make her contract with you." I grabbed my glasses and walked out of my hospital room. I turned back one final time. "I will kill all of you."

Walking down the hall, past doctors and nurses and patients, I kept my gaze locked ahead, focused on the mission. As I turned down the hall, I happened to glance into an exam room whose door had been left open. Inside sat a girl no older than me, getting an examination; she was slightly taller then me, with white hair that was pulled back into a short ponytail. "Shinju," I read from her chart. I entered and removed Madoka's ribbon from my hair. I tied it around her ponytail. "Don't worry, Shinju, never again will any girl trade their soul around Kyubey's lies."

I continued down the hall, entering the public bathroom closest to my room. I entered a stall and took a deep breath. 'What if I did the calculations wrong?' I thought. Shoving away my doubt, I resumed time and listened to the explosion, and the screams coming from every direction as so many rushed, frantic, to the scene. I returned to my normal form, still in my hospital clothes, and left the bathroom, making my way down the hall to where my room had been. I squeezed through the crowd until I could see what had happened. As planned, the explosion had destroyed everything in the room, but had left the rest of the building untouched; a single gold ring which had once circled Kyubey's ear was now resting at my feet. I picked it up and looked it over, slipping it over my wrist.

"You're alive!" my doctor shouted in surprise and relief as he walked out of the charred room. "We were afraid you had been caught in the explosion."

"What happened?" I asked, trying to keep my cover. "I went for a walk down the hall to stretch my legs, and then I heard an explosion."

"The officers say it looks like it was just a gas explosion from a damage oxygen valve and a spark from somewhere," he told me. "Are you injured, or are you ready to be discharged?"

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"And boys, don't grow up to put catsup on your eggs!" Miss Saotome said with ire. "Oh, and one more thing: We have a new student I'd like to introduce."

"Wait, that was an afterthought?" Sayaka commented as I entered the classroom.

Madoka gasped as she saw me. "Why don't you introduce yourself?" Miss Saotome asked.

"I'm Akemi Homura; pleased to meet you," I said. Miss Saotome reached for a pen to write out my name on the board; I reached out and stopped her, taking a pen and writing it myself. I turned around to face the class and bowed; they applauded. I looked at Madoka, and she squirmed nervously.

"Do you know her from somewhere?" Sayaka asked.

"I don't know," Madoka replied uncomfortably.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"What school did you go to?" one of my classmates asked; as many times as I'd been through this, I never learned her name.

"A mission school inTokyo," I replied.

"Were you in any clubs?" another one of my classmates asked.

"I'm sorry, the stress seems to have gotten to me; I feel ill," I said. "I think I need to go to the nurse's office."

"I'll take you," the first girl offered.

"I'll come, too," the second girl said.

"No, you don't have to," I said. "I'll ask the class monitor." I stood up and walked over to Madoka. "Excuse me, Kaname Madoka; you're the class monitor, correct?"

"Um…" she replied, nervous.

"Can you bring me to the nurse's office?" I asked.

"Uh… Yes," she replied shyly, standing up. We walked out of the classroom and down the hall; everyone we passed stared at us, whispering in excitement. "How did you know I was the class monitor?"

"Miss Saotome told me earlier," I replied.

"Oh! Well, the nurse's office is-" she began.

I stopped at the end of the hall, looking both ways, and turned the corner to the left. "Here, right?" I asked.

"Yeah," Madoka replied. "I didn't expect you to know where it was." I turned another corner. "A-Akemi?"

I stopped for a second before continuing on. "Call me Homura, please," I insisted softly.

"Homura," she said, trying out my name hesitantly.

"It's a bit unusual, I know," I replied.

"I-I think it's cool," she said nervously.

I stopped and turned around; we stood on the skywalk. "Kaname Madoka…" I started, pausing. "Don't change who you are. You should just stay Kaname Madoka forever, just like you have been until now."

"Um, ok," she replied, blushing.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"I don't get it…" Madoka said, confused, as she ate with Sayaka and Hitomi; I sat across the room.

"I thought she was a genius beauty, smart and athletically-talented, but she's just a nut!" Sayaka insisted. "How many quirks is that transfer student trying to show off?" She dropped her head onto the table.

"Is this really your first time meeting Akemi?" Hitomi asked.

"Really, yeah, but…" Madoka started.

Sayaka sat up and said, "So, what, you recognize her from somewhere unreal or something?"

"Well, I feel like I met her in a dream last night," Madoka said.

Sayaka and Hitomi giggled. "Wow, so now you're trying to be quirky, too?" Sayaka asked.

"Meanie!" Madoka shouted. "I'm really wondering about it!"

"I've got it!" Sayaka said. "This is fate! You're destined friends, brought together by the universe itself! You-"

"What kind of dream was it?" Hitomi asked, interrupting Sayaka, who was staring daggers at her.

"I don't really remember," Madoka said, thinking, "just that it was something weird."

"Maybe you really did meet her," Hitomi continued, "and she left such a strong impression that, despite not remembering her, she happened to pop up in a dream."

"Isn't that a bit far-fetched?" Sayaka interjected. "It's just a coincidence."

"I guess," Hitomi conceded. She opened her phone. "Wow, it's already really late. I'm sorry, I have to get going."

"What is it today?" Sayaka asked as Hitomi stood up and prepared to leave. "Piano? Japanese dance?"

"Tea ceremony," Hitomi replied. "But with exams coming up, I don't know how much longer I'll be doing it."

"I'm glad I was born into a working family," Sayaka commented.

"We should get going, too," Madoka said.

"Hey, Madoka, why don't we stop by the record store?" Sayaka asked.

"Alright," Madoka replied. "Kamijo again?"

"I guess," Sayaka giggled.

"Excuse me, Hitomi, is it?" I asked as she passed me.

"Oh, yes?" she replied, stopping next to me.

"You're good friend with Madoka and Sayaka, aren't you?" I asked.

"I am," she replied.

"Do you…" I began. "No, never mind."

"Um, ok," she replied. "Have a nice day."

"You, too," I said.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"How is it that no matter how many of you I kill, you always come back?" I asked Kyubey as I held him by the ears.

"I cannot explain how we work to someone of such limited intelligence as a human," he replied in his usual smug attitude.

"I'm not human anymore," I said bitterly.

"By one definition, yes, but your soul and your mind are still that of a human," he said. I whipped him by the ears, and his neck snapped, his body falling lifeless. I turned immediately to the sound of Kyubey running away, and, managing to catch a glimpse of him before he ran too deep into the darkness of the building, I fired off a shot. I returned my attention to the Kyubey in my hands, removing one of the gold rings from his ears and slipping it over my wrist, next to the other. I tossed the corpse to the ground and ran after the other Kyubey.

"What do you seek to gain from killing us?" he asked me through my thoughts.

"Revenge," I replied.

"I will never understand you humans," he said. I laughed. "What is it that you find amusing?"

"You'll never understand us, but you have no problems killing us, turning us into tools of grief and despair, just so you can do whatever it is you do with the energy you harvest," I said. "You are a culture of murderous psychopaths who feed on beings you deem lesser for your own ends, and you feel nothing about it. You do not deserve to live." I stopped time again and slowed to a walk, moving ever closer to Kyubey, his conversation with me giving away his position. As I approached, I stopped; Madoka held him, with Sayaka by her side. I turned back and hid behind a pillar before restarting time. I stepped out.

"Homura!" Madoka exclaimed.

"Step back," I replied.

"But he's hurt!" Madoka insisted. "Don't be mean!"

"This has nothing to do with you," I said.

"But he called out to me!" she replied. "I heard him ask me for help!"

"I see," I said, disheartened. "Remember what I told you earlier." I turned around and walked away.

"As long as Madoka lives, she will protect me," Kyubey told me.

"You forget that I know what's going to happen," I replied, "and you don't." I climbed into the ceiling and moved back over to where Madoka was, staying hidden in the darkness.

The room below began changing, transforming into the labyrinth of a witch. "What is this place? It's changing all around us!" Madoka shouted.

"What's going on?" Sayaka shouted.

"Something's there!" Madoka shouted, turning around.

"This has to be some kind of a joke," Sayaka said, grabbing on to Madoka. "I have dreams like this sometimes."

Suddenly, orange light shot up from the floor. "Wait, what's that?" Madoka asked.

"That was a close one," Mami said from behind them; Madoka and Sayaka turned around to face her. "But everything's alright now." She walked up, smiling, a chain and her soul gem in her hands. "Oh, you saved Kyubey. Thanks; he's a dear friend of mine."

"He called out to me," Madoka said. "His voice appeared in my head."

"I see," Mami replied. "Those uniforms are from Midakihara, aren't they? You're, what, second-year?"

"Who are you?" Madoka asked.

"Oh, right, I forgot to introduce myself," she said. "But first…" She danced around, releasing her magical form. "There's something I need to finish up!" A hundred flintlock rifles appeared in the air around her, all firing down upon the witch's illusions.

"Wow!" Madoka exclaimed.

The illusions faded, returning us to the abandoned floor of the shopping mall. "We're back!" Sayaka shouted gleefully.

I dropped from the ceiling, and Mami said, "The witch ran away. If you want to catch her, we'd better hurry up. It's up to you."

"I have other plans," I said.

"You're pretty dense," Mami shot off. "I was implying that we're letting you go. We wouldn't want to make trouble for each other, would we?"

I dropped from the box on which I had landed, and Madoka and Sayaka breathed a sigh of relief. Mami took Kyubey from Madoka and laid him on the ground, laying her hands over him and healing him. "Thanks, Mami! You saved me!" he said.

"You should thank them," Mami replied. "I just happened to pass by."

"Thank you!" he said, turning to Madoka and Sayaka. "I'm Kyubey."

"Did you call out to me?" Madoka asked.

"Yes!" he replied. "I want you to form a contract with me and become mahou shoujo!"

"And still you go after her," I said to him telepathically. "You have sealed your fate once again."

"We are many," he replied.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"One day, perhaps, the light of love, which shines in your eyes, will create a dream from this scarred world," I said as I stood outside Madoka's window. She turned around in surprise. "Swallowing down your hesitation, what is it that you wish for? On a path of yearning as greedy as this, will our tomorrow be again fleeting? When I was a young girl, I dream of you wielding something like ancient magic; I want to be by your side as, smiling, you shatter the darkness. In my trembling hand, I grasp the life of an innocent flower; as my emotions waver, my prayer awakens the light." I turned away from her, another dead Kyubey in my hands, hiding behind my back.

"Homu…" she started to say as I walked away.

I hid by the side of her window, listening intently to her, trying to understand what must be going through her thoughts. "Remember what I told you, and if someone comes offering miracles in exchange for your soul, don't ask for one until you know the consequences." I jumped onto her roof and watched as she stuck her head out the window, looking for me. I removed both golden rings from Kyubey ears, putting one on my wrist and dropping the other onto Madoka before running away; the ring landed on her head. She grabbed it and looked up, trying to find the origin.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

Author's Note:

As I watched the series, I guessed every step along the way, except for maybe two; one was that Madoka use her wish to bring Mami back from the dead (which, I guess, technically, she did do in the end, but I was thinking it would happen right then and there), and the other I will talk about below. Despite that, this has to be one of my favorite stories ever. I think it's simply brilliant, and I will be very sad if they don't continue it in some way beyond what is already planned.

The other thing that I didn't get right is that the only solution to this problem isn't what Madoka did, but, well, a wish that all magical girls are able to grant the powers, and the complete genocide of the Incubators; when Homura says that she's planning on killing all of them, she means it, but first, she must get Madoka to make the right wish, and for Kyubey to grant it right. I tell you this, I give you these spoilers, because that's not the plot of the story, it's just where it ends, and is simply a means of conveyance into the next story in the series (yes, I will write a sequel, and I know this despite only having written out one chapter). After all, you're not here to find out what happens to that annoying little rat-creature, you're here for the journey Homura and Madoka will take. Now, a real spoiler would be for me to tell you that there's a very graphic sex scene between Homura, Kyoko, and Mami (which doesn't ever happen, so relax).

And yes, I am using Kyubey emoticons to separate sections, instead of boring horizontal lines.


	2. Chapter Two: Wonder Hides Tragedy

Chapter Two: Wonder Hides Tragedy; Fearlessness Breeds Recklessness

"Mami, these are great!" Madoka exclaimed as she took a bite of her cake.

"They taste amazing!" Sayaka shouted.

"Thank you," Mami said graciously. "Now that Kyubey's chosen you, you're involved, so I thought an explanation was in order."

"Sure, what do you want to hear?" Sayaka asked.

Madoka laughed. "I think she means the other way around," she said.

Mami perked up, her attention caught, and she stood and walked over to the window. "You're that girl from yesterday," Mami said as she opened the curtains in her apartment; I was standing on the ledge outside the window.

"I am," I replied. "I've come to apologize."

"You could have used the door," she said, opening the window.

"I tried," I said. She looked at me, mildly bemused. "You don't answer it unless you're expecting company."

"How did you know that?" she asked.

I climbed in and said, "I'll explain later. Please, excuse the interruption; I wanted to be here when Kyubey explained the contract."

"So you're not going to kill me, then?" he asked me silently.

"Not yet," I replied, glaring at him. "I want Madoka and Sayaka to know what's at stake first."

"Yes," Mami said after thinking for a moment, "I think that having another magical girl here to help explain it would be good for them." She stood. "Can I get you something?"

"Tea; thank you," I replied, taking a seat across from Madoka and Sayaka as she went over to her kitchen.

"Oh! Homura, thank you for the gold bracelet," Madoka said, raising her hand to show it off. "Where did you get it?"

"Yes, Homura, tell her where you got it," Kyubey said.

"They're trophies," I said simply.

Kyubey walked over to Madoka, sitting in front of her, his ear falling next to her hand. She looked down at him, and drew in a sharp breath. "They look just like the ones Kyubey has."

Mami sat a cup of tea down in front of me. "Thank you," I said, taking a sip. "They are similar, aren't they?" I held my cup in front of me.

"Should I explain it to them?" Kyubey asked.

"I'd rather you not," I said, setting my cup down calmly. "There are other things to discuss which are considerably more important." I turned my attention to Mami. "Please, what were you discussing before I interrupted?"

Mami nodded and opened her hand, revealing her soul gem. "It's beautiful!" Madoka exclaimed.

"This is a soul gem," Mami said. "It's a jewel born forth when a girl contracts with Kyubey; the source of their mystic power and proof that they're a magical girl."

"Contracts?" Sayaka asked.

"I'll fulfill any one of your wishes!" Kyubey said.

"Really?" Sayaka asked, surprised.

"Wishes?" Madoka mused.

"It doesn't matter what!" Kyubey said. "I'll make miracles happen!"

Madoka shot up straight and looked at me, worry in her eyes. "Is everything alright, Miss Kaname?" Mami asked.

"Uh… Yes, I'm fine," Madoka said, squirming. "I just remembered something; it's nothing."

"Wow!" Sayaka thought aloud. "Fabulous riches? Immortality? Maybe even a feast fit for an emperor!"

"That last one is kind of…" Madoka said.

"But, in exchange, anyone who holds a soul gem has the duty to fight witches," Kyubey continued.

"Witches?" Madoka asked.

"What's a witch?" Sayaka asked. "Are they different from magical girls?"

"If mahou shoujo are born from wishes, then witches are born from curses," Kyubey explained.

"From grief," I interjected.

"Yes," Kyubey said. "If magical girls spread hope, then witches scatter despair. It's made all the more horrible in that normal humans can't see them; unease and suspicion, consumption with rage and hatred, they sow the seeds of catastrophe through the world."

"Quite a few unexplained suicides and murders are caused by witches' curses," Mami continued. "Their formless malevolence eats away at us from within."

"If they're so dangerous, why doesn't anyone know about them?" Sayaka asked.

"Witches conceal themselves within a magical barrier, never to reveal themselves," Kyubey said, "like the labyrinth you two wandered into."

"It was pretty dangerous in there," Mami interjected. "Most people who get sucked in never make it out alive."

"And you fight against things that scary?" Madoka asked, nervous.

"Yes, I risk my life, so I know that you should think it over carefully before deciding," Mami replied. "Since you two were chosen by Kyubey, you have the chance to make any of your wishes come true, but, in return, you risk have to your life."

"I'm not sure…" Sayaka said, uneasy; Madoka slumped down a bit, scared.

"How about you come along on a witch hunt?" Mami suggested. "You can see what it means to fight witches for yourself, and it'll help you decide carefully whether there is something you want so badly you'd risk your life for it. What do you think about that, Homura?"

"I think that they'd be safe with the two of us there to protect them," I replied. "You can take the lead; I'll make sure they stay safe."

"Agreed," Mami said, taking a sip of her tea.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"I still don't entirely trust you," Mami said telepathically from her perch on the tower across from the roof of the school, where Madoka and Sayaka were eating their lunch with Kyubey.

"I don't blame you," I replied from the shadows where I'd hidden myself to watch them. "After what I did to Kyubey, you're right not to trust me, but if you knew what I know, you'd have done the same thing. Can he hear us?"

"No, this is purely between you and me," she replied. "What is it that you know that I don't?"

"What did you wish for?" I asked her, ignoring her question.

"You seem to know everything else, I thought you'd know that, too," she said sarcastically.

"I do know, but I want to hear you say it," I replied.

Mami was silent for a moment before saying, "'I wish that I wasn't going to die today.' Those are my exact words."

"You're certain?" I asked. "I have to be sure about this."

"Yes, I'm certain," she replied. "What are you talking about?"

"I wished that I could meet Madoka again, but I would be the one protecting her, instead of her protecting me," I said.

"Why would you wish that?" Mami asked.

"You may not want to know the answer to that question," I replied. "It is not a pleasant thing, or a happy story."

"No, I want to know," she insisted.

"One month before Walpurgisnacht," I started. "When I'm from, by this time, Madoka had already contracted with Kyubey, and was fighting alongside you. I was drawn in by a witch, and you two saved me, doing for me what we now do for Madoka and Sayaka. Over the month, you trained her, and I watched, learning what I could, constantly being pestered by Kyubey to make my contract. When Walpurgisnacht arrived, you went up against it, and you both died." Mami was silent, taking in the story. "I made my wish, that I could protect her, and I went back in time, countless times, to the day we met, trying to find a way to keep Madoka safe, to keep her from forming her contract with Kyubey. Sometimes she would die before she formed her contract, and others after. Twice, she even defeated Walpurgisnacht."

"And then what?" Mami asked.

"There are many things which Kyubey has not told you," I said. "Before I tell you anything else, there are a few things which need to happen."

"Wait!" she said. "Did Madoka ever win?"

I hesitated. "Yes," I said, "but at the greatest price of all. She wished to destroy all witches before they were created, with her own hands. She became a goddess, changing the rules of the universe, and destroying it in the process, replacing it with one where there were no witches, and no grief became the magical girls."

"If she remade the universe, then how do you know all this?" Mami asked skeptically.

"She pulled me out so that I could remember her," I replied, trying to hold back the tears. "I'd protected her so many times, seen her die so many times, and she was so grateful that she let me remember everything; she let me remember her."

"Then why did you come back?" she asked.

"I think she wanted me to," I said. "I think she knew how to make a better wish, and wanted me to come help her. I need to go now; you take them on the first witch hunt, but don't worry about going after familiars, and I'll join you on the next one. And don't tell anyone about this conversation; Madoka and Sayaka need to learn more about what it means to be a magical girl first, and Kyubey will give you answers you shouldn't know yet."

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"Are you afraid, Sayaka?" Kyubey said, relaying the conversation to me telepathically; I followed Madoka as she led Mami and I to the grief seed.

"Of course I am," she replied.

"If you decide on your wish, I can make you a magical girl right now," he said.

"I might have to ask you to," she commented.

"It's not her time yet," I told him. "If you wait, she'll be more powerful."

"How?" he asked me.

"It's something very important to me," Sayaka continued. "I don't want to rush into it half-hearted."

"That's how," I told him.

"Kyubey, what's the situation?" Mami asked as we reached the outside of the hospital.

"We're ok," he replied. "It doesn't seem like it's about to do anything."

"Sayaka, are you alright?" Madoka asked.

"I'm getting bored in here," Sayaka shot off.

"It's probably best to avoid provoking the grief seed by using strong magic," Kyubey said. "It's probably best to keep it stealthy."

"Got it," Mami replied, leading us into the labyrinth.

"I'm glad we made it in time," Madoka said.

"I should be scolding you for overdoing it," Mami replied, "but this was Sayaka's idea, wasn't it?"

"Mami, this witch is unlike anything you've ever seen," I said. "Be careful."

"Right," she replied, leading on, traversing the labyrinth.

"Um, Mami? Homura? I've been thinking about my wish," Madoka said shyly.

"Have you come up with something?" Mami replied, glancing over to me; I held my tongue.

"Yes, but I think you might get mad about it," Madoka said.

"What wish do you want fulfilled?" Mami asked.

"I've never been good at anything, or had anything to be proud of," Madoka replied. "I thought I'd always be a trouble rather than being able to help people, and as much as I hated it, I couldn't do anything about it. But then I met you, and you showed me how to fight for the sake of others. You told me that I could do the same thing. That would make me happier than anything, so just becoming a magical girl is my wish!"

Mami stopped in her tracks; I walked up behind Madoka and put my hand on her shoulder. "Being a magical girl isn't something you enjoy," she said. "You'll get hurt; you won't have time for friends or anything."

"But when I see you trying your hardest, I look up to you," Madoka said.

"I'm not the kind of person you want to admire," Mami said resolute as she turned around. "I try to look calm, but I'm scared. I'm hurt. I can't talk to anyone about my problems. I sit at home alone crying…"

"You're not alone anymore, Mami," Madoka insisted. I nodded in agreement.

"You… You're right," Mami replied, smiling, taking one of Madoka's hands, and laying her other on top of mine. "Will you really fight by my side?"

"Yes, if you'll have me," Madoka said.

"Absolutely," I replied.

Tears filled Mami's eyes. "I'm really no good at this," she said, wiping them. "But it's still a special occasion; you need to think of a good wish."

"Mami," I interjected telepathically, "she's not ready yet."

"Do you really think you know what's best for her?" she asked me. "How can you be so sure?"

"I know you don't trust me, but I need you to," I insisted. "She'll be ready by Walpurgisnacht."

"The grief seed's moving!" Kyubey said, interrupting me.

"Alright, got it," Mami replied. "Let's blow this thing away!" She and I held out our hands and released our powers. Quickly, she jumped down into the fray of minions, spinning around and creating dozens of flintlock rifles. She danced around, firing each in turn at the witch's illusions, batting still more away as she exchanged one rifle for another. "It's like my body is floating… This is the first time I've been this happy in a fight! I'm not afraid anymore!" She returned to the landing where Madoka and I were standing and took our hands, leading us down to where Kyubey and Sayaka were hiding. "Sorry we took so long."

"Look out, it's coming!" Kyubey shouted. A small pink and black doll descended from the ceiling, landing on a chair which towered above us.

"Charlotte," I whispered.

"What?" Mami asked.

"The witch's name is Charlotte," I said, as Mami and I darted out; she attacked the chair with the butt of her rifle, breaking the legs and sending the witch down, while I ran to the side of the room, preparing for my part. She swung her rifle, batting Charlotte over to the wall, and shot her; Charlotte fell to the ground. She walked over to Charlotte and she shot her in the head. Gold lines drew up from the ground, carrying Charlotte into the air.

"Alright!" Madoka and Sayaka cheered. Mami smiled and looked up at Charlotte. The rifle in her hands changed, growing much larger. "Tiro Finale!" she shouted, taking aim at the witch. She fired, and a giant ribbon shot through Charlotte, wrapping around her and squeezing her. From Charlotte's mouth came a new form, the face of a clown on a long, black, snake-like form. It moved toward Mami, smiling and showing its fangs. It drew closer, moving in from above. Mami stared at it in shock, its teeth inches from her head; Madoka and Sayaka looked on in horror.

I stopped time and pulled from the dial on my arm a heavy machine gun, bracing myself and firing at the witch; the torrent of bullets stopped just shy of impact. I ran over and pulled Mami out of the way, bringing her to Madoka. Time resumed, and Charlotte recoiled from the assault. "Your part is done," I said. "Now, it's my turn." I jumped onto a table, and Charlotte dove at me. I stopped time at the last moment, placing a bomb where I was standing and moving on to the next table. I resumed time, repeating until he'd eaten several. I jumped onto the table in the middle of the room, and Charlotte moved toward me, stopping only when the first bomb exploded in her mouth. She looked onward, confused, until the rest of the bombs exploded inside her, finally destroying her altogether.

I walked back over to the others. "Amazing!" Madoka shouted.

"That was a close call," I said. "Never forget, this is what it means to be a magical girl. If I hadn't been here, Mami would have died." The illusion died around us, returning us to the outside of the hospital. "And if we don't work together, we'll all be dead."

"Who gets the grief seed?" Mami asked. I walked over to Kyubey, deliberately jingling the rings around her wrist in front of him as she picked up the grief seed.

"Hold on to this," I told Madoka as I returned to them. I took her arm, placing the grief seed in her hand and closing her hand around it. "One of us might need it some day."

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

Author's Note:

Mami lives.


	3. Chapter Three: Diverge

Chapter Three: Diverge

"Miki Sayaka, you need to be very careful when wishing for something for someone else," I told her as we walked through the hospital.

"I know; Mami told me the same thing," she replied, opening the door to one of the rooms.

"Hey, are you here to see Kamijo?" a passing nurse asked.

"Y-yeah," she replied.

"Sorry; we had to move up his examination, so he's seeing the rehabilitation councilor right now," the nurse said.

"Oh… Thanks…" Sayaka replied, turning and walking away.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"Goodbye, Mami!" Madoka said as she and Sayaka left Mami's apartment.

"Goodbye, Miss Kaname, Miss Sayaka," Mami replied.

"I see you heeded my warning," I said as they walked out of the building.

"Oh, Homura…" Madoka said.

"I'm glad," I continued. "Making a contract with Kyubey is not something to be taken lightly." I turned to Sayaka. "Kamijo should be back now. We should go visit him again."

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"Oh, hey, Sayaka," Kamijo said as she opened the door to his room.

"Hey, Kyosuke," Sayaka said, dragging a chair over to his bed; I followed. "This is-"

"Akemi Homura; pleased to meet you," I said.

"Kamijo Kyosuke; pleased to meet you, as well," he replied. I walked over to the window, standing between it and his bed.

"What are you listening to?" Sayaka asked.

"The Girl with the Flaxen Hair," he replied, looking away.

"Oh, Debussy, right? That's a great song," Sayaka said. Kamijo didn't reply. "Uh, I guess everyone thinks that I don't really look like the kind of girl who'd listen to classical music, so they're always so surprised when I come up with the name of a piece or something It's so unexpected that they get all impressed. It's because you taught me, Kyosuke. Without you, I think I could have gone my whole life without listening to this music."

"Sayaka, do you…" he started. "Are you mocking me?"

"What?" she asked.

"Why do you keep making me listen to this music?" he continued. "Are you just trying to hurt me?"

"But you love music!" Sayaka insisted.

"I don't want to hear another note!" he shouted, raising his hand to his head. "I can't stand listening to music I'll never be able to play! I… I…" He tried to slam his hand down on the CD player by his side, but I caught him before he could. Sayaka leapt out of her chair, throwing herself on him, crying; I took the CD player away, placing it on the windowsill. "I can't move my fingers. I can't even feel pain. With this treatment-"

"Don't worry, you'll get better somehow!" Sayaka insisted. "As long as you don't give up, someday-"

"They told me to give up," he replied. "They told me to give up on playing. My maestro told me himself that it's impossible with modern medicine. My hand will never move again without a miracle or magic or something."

"Those exist!" Sayaka shouted. "There are miracles and magic." She looked up to the window. Seeing me, she turned around and ran out of the room.

I sighed. "She loves you, you know," I said.

"We've known each other since we were kids," he said.

"Yeah," I said, walking out.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

'I wonder if you can hear me, Madoka,' I thought as I watched this world's Madoka walk down the street from above, following her from building tops as she went. 'I'm doing everything I can. I think I'll get it right this time.'

"Hitomi!" she shouted as she spotted her from across the way, running over to her. "How did practice go?" She stopped for a moment when she noticed the witch's mark on Hitomi's neck. "Hey! Hitomi!"

"Oh, Kaname! Good evening!" Hitomi said.

"What's wrong? Where are you going?" Madoka asked, insistent.

"Where? Well…" she said, "I'm going to a better place."

"Hitomi…" Madoka sighed.

"I know, you should come, too!" Hitomi said, continuing on. "Yes, it'll be fabulous!" Madoka followed, scared and confused, eventually ending up in an abandoned warehouse with a small crowd of others.

"No! Don't do that!" Madoka shouted as she saw a woman mixing chemicals in a bucket. She threw her bag to the side and ran toward her.

Hitomi stopped her. "You mustn't interrupt the holy rites," she said with a smile.

"But that's dangerous!" Madoka insisted. "Everyone here will die!"

"Yes! We're all going on a journey to a wonderful new world!" Hitomi replied. "Don't you understand how great that'll be? Our living bodies only hold us back. You'll understand very soon now." Madoka trembled as the crowd applauded Hitomi's speech.

"No! Let me go!" Madoka shouted, shoving Hitomi out of the way. She ran over to the bucket, taking it and running with it, throwing it out the window. The crowd shambled toward her in a trance. Madoka backed up, trying to open the window to escape. Trapped, she moved along the wall, hitting a door. Quickly, she opened it and ducked inside the room, locking the door behind her. The witch began to create its labyrinth in the small room in which Madoka had locked herself. "What do I do?"

"Now," I said, turning to Sayaka.

"Right," she replied, diving into the labyrinth. I waited anxiously as I watched, unable to see what was going on inside. A minute later, the labyrinth disappeared, returning Madoka and Sayaka to reality. "Sorry it took me so long; you really looked like you were in trouble."

"Sayaka, your outfit…" Madoka started.

"I kind of had a change of heart," Sayaka said, laughing nervously. Madoka shifted uncomfortably. "It's fine. I did great for my first time, huh?"

"But…" Madoka said.

I jumped down, landing on the roof across the alley from the now-broken room. "You should go, before the police arrive" I said, jumping down and running off.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"Do not forget about Miki Sayaka, Kamijo Kyosuke," I said, standing on the ledge outside his window as he moved his fingers for the first time since the accident.

"Wait, what are you doing here?" he asked, turning to me. He hesitated. "Did you do this?"

"No, I didn't," I replied.

"Did… Sayaka?" he asked. I turned around and jumped down, climbing from windowsill to windowsill until I reached the ground.

"I didn't expect _you_ to show up," Kyubey said, relaying his conversation to me.

"I heard Mami survived," Kyoko said.

"There's a new girl who saved her," he replied.

"Really?" she asked. "Jeeze, that's lame; I thought it'd be easy to come here and get some grief seeds."

"What are you planning, Kyoko?" he asked.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"So, I hear you're part of that new team Mami put together," Kyoko said, chewing on a Pocky stick as she entered the observation deck in which I was standing.

"What about it?" I asked, my focus remaining on the hospital.

"Any chance I can get in on the action?" she asked, standing beside me.

"Kyubey is hiding inside the stairwell," I said. "Bring him to me."

"Go get him yourself," she replied defiantly.

"If I try, he'll run," I said. "If you want in, bring me Kyubey."

"Hmpf!" she replied. Casually, she walked over to the stairwell, returning moments later with Kyubey in her arms.

"It's time to tell Kyoko the truth," I said as she stood next to me again.

"I do not lie," he said.

"Your words are lies of omission," I replied, "sins which you have done to all of us."

"An omission is not a lie," he said, "but if I did not use some form of deception, these omissions, then no girl would accept."

"What are you talking about?" Kyoko asked sharply.

"Let's start from the beginning," I said. "What is the nature of the soul gem?"

"A soul gem is the physical manifestation of the soul of a human," he replied. "It is used to control the bodies which you possess, which have been created to withstand exceptional amounts of damage."

"What the hell are you saying?" Kyoko shouted. "You mean my soul is inside this thing?"

"That is more or less what I said," he replied. "As long as your soul gem remains intact, your body can be rebuilt, and you can continue to fight."

"I'm a… I'm a zombie?" she screamed.

"A lich is a more accurate representation," Kyubey corrected. "I do not see why everyone gets so displeased when this fact is revealed."

Kyoko regained her composure, if only out of confusion and curiosity, and held out her hand, revealing her soul gem. "What would happen if I dropped it off the building?" she asked.

"After a hundred meters, you would lose control of your body, similar to what you would have called 'falling unconscious,'" he said. "When it hit the ground, it would likely shatter, and you would be killed."

She closed her hand around it quickly, returning it to a ring. "Now, tell her about the origin of witches," I said.

"A witch is born when the grief of a mahou shoujo becomes too much for her to bear," Kyubey replied. "That is why it is important to keep your soul gems clear at all times."

"You mean… I'll become a witch someday?" Kyoko asked nervously.

"Inevitably," he replied. Kyoko started to laugh, softly at first, growing eventually to a roar. "Once again I fail to understand the humor you humans find in situations which are not humorous."

"I sold you my soul for my father's church, forcing me to spend my life fighting witches, only to have him find out and call _me_ a witch, in the end killing himself and my whole family, the people I fought to protect," she laughed. "And it turns out that in the end, I _will_ be a witch, after all! I'll kill people and spread misery, and it's all _your_ fault!"

She grabbed him by the neck and prepared to throw him out the window, but I stopped her, grabbing her arm. "Wait," I insisted. "There's one more question which he needs to answer."

"What?" she demanded.

"Why do you really create the magical girls?" I asked.

"To fight the forces of entropy in the universe," he replied.

"Elaborate," I demanded.

"When a mahou shoujo becomes a witch, there is a large amount of emotional energy released, which we capture and put toward the continued momentum of the universe," he replied. "Without our efforts, the universe would run out of energy and end up collapsing in on itself."

"And what is the timeframe for this universal collapse?" I asked.

"It is uncertain," he replied. I yanked sharply on his tail. "It is somewhere in the area of one hundred thousand billion years before the effect is noticeable, with another ten billion billion years before it is completed."

"And how much time will this energy buy the universe?" I asked.

"Five hundred billion years," he replied. "At which time, we will have to start again."

"What the hell are you?" Kyoko demanded shaking him hard.

"We are-" he started, getting cut off by my knife slicing off his head; his body fell to the floor.

I took his head from the shocked Kyoko, removing the rings from around his ears. I put one on my wrist and handed the other to her. "Trophies," I said, "from the great crusade."

She stared at me in silence for a moment, too shocked to speak, before saying, "That's the forth time you've killed him?"

"And he still keeps coming back," I replied.

"Was he telling the truth?" she asked, cautiously examining the band.

"He doesn't lie," I said. "He simply misrepresents the truth and leaves out vital information to manipulate us into doing what he wants."

"Why do you keep killing him?" she asked, unsteady.

"Because I've seen a world without witches," I replied, "where magical girls simply cease to exist when their grief grows too much. I do not know what happens to them, but I want to believe that they go to Kaname Madoka."

"Who's that?" she asked. "And what do you mean, you've seen a world without witches?"

"Kaname Madoka was a magical girl whose wish made her a goddess and destroyed the universe, remaking it into one without the witches," I explained. "She sent me here, to this world, to help her do things differently, so that nobody had to die."

"What are you talking about?" Kyoko demanded.

"My wish was to protect her before she even became a magical girl," I replied. "When she dies, or I do it wrong, I can go back in time, giving me another chance to protect her. I've seen almost every possible way that our lives could unfold, yours included, each a variant of one single master theme, and I am determined to keep everyone alive this time."

"You mean… Have I died in your other worlds?" she asked, swallowing down her fear.

"Many times," I replied. "Against Walpurgisnacht, against the witch that forms from Sayaka, and once even to Mami, a mercy killing from madness when she found out that we become witches."

"This is too much," she replied, leaning against the railing to brace herself as everything began to sink in. "How do you live with knowing all of this?"

"Most don't, going crazy and killing themselves or becoming witches shortly after finding out," I replied. "I don't have a choice; I have to save Madoka."

"You mean that goddess of yours is here?" she asked. She thought for a moment, going over the conversation again. "Who's Sayaka?"

I pointed to Kamijo's room in the hospital and said, "That's Sayaka."

The door to Kamijo's room opened, and Sayaka walked in. "Hey, Kyosuke!" Sayaka said. He waved with his left hand. "You can move your hand again!"

"Sayaka!" he said, surprised, smiling.

"Are you being discharged yet?" she asked.

"No, my leg rehabilitation isn't done yet," he replied. "I have to be back on my feet before I leave. Besides, they don't know how my hand healed, so they want to run some more tests first."

"What do you think?" she asked. "Does everything feel fine?"

"It feels like it was never hurt at all," he replied. He took her hands and looked into her eyes. "You were right, Sayaka. It's a miracle." He turned away, looking out the windows.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I was really mean to you," he replied. "I know I have a temper, but it's no excuse."

"Forget about it," she said, forcing a laugh. "You're happy now; don't make that face."

"I feel like I've wasted so much time," he said, turning back to her. "Thank you."

"For… For what?" Sayaka asked, shocked.

"For being here for me," he replied. "What else?"

"Uh… Nothing!" she said, glancing nervously at her watch. "Oh, hey, it's almost time."

"For what?" he asked.

"Let's go get you some fresh air," she replied, helping him out of bed and into a wheelchair.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

Author's Note:

Small changes cascade.

This is where Sayaka's story begins, and where the story starts to change more dramatically from the anime than it had before, taking this universe on its own unique path. Fair warning, this is also where the story starts getting darker, and eventually (gradually over a few chapters) gets outright "world falling into black hole"-grade grimdark. I'm hoping to make it worse than the anime was, because a lot of what happened to the characters was left to your imagination, whereas I plan on making the full extent of the sad reality fully visible and unavoidable. I do this because I want you to feel despair, for the characters and for the world, and, most of all, for the witches themselves.

I don't intend to do this through the easy way of torturing the characters more than they were in the anime. In fact, they end up suffering less. No, I plan to do this by showing you what the characters are feeling, and by forcing them to face reality. Take Sayaka, for example. She becomes cut off and disillusioned, spiraling into a madness that leads her to becoming a witch. As you will see, Homura knows this, having lived through these events before, and she does whatever she can to take care of Sayaka, including shocking her back to reality.

Remember, Homura is doing everything in her power to save all of the other characters, not just Madoka. She's seen countless permutations of time and action, and is now fully intent on using every bit of that knowledge to get people to make the right decisions, knowing that if she tells them what to do, nobody would believe her (this thinking is confirmed in the anime in episode 8, as well as one of the timelines in episode 10). She knows what's going to happen, and no matter how bad things get, she's strong enough to fight through it, knowing how to get the results she wants.

Homura really is the strongest character in the series, not in terms of what she can do to others, but in terms of what others can do to her. Every time, countless iterations through the universe, she's seen her friends die and her world burn. She's stood facing death itself more times than she can remember. She's had her soul ripped out and beat to dust, _and still she fights_. And now, not witches, not madness, not Walpurgisnacht, not even the infinite armies of Kyubey can stop her from giving everyone a happy ending.

On a completely different note, I also made a few technical changes to chapters 1 and 2, fixing a few issues I overlooked before. It's not story-related, just a few spelling and grammar issues, and fixed the end of the fight scene with Mami; black-snake Charlotte now eats inconspicuous-second-doll Charlotte that was sitting on the other chair (which is where her mind is, apparently, which I _completely_ missed the first few times I watched the episode). No need to go and re-read them, I just felt like sharing in case anyone reading noticed but didn't say anything.


	4. Chapter Four: Reassembled and Rejected

Chapter Four: Reassembled and Rejected

"What did you want to talk about?" I asked as Madoka and I sat in the small restaurant in the mall.

"Well, uh, it's about Sayaka…" she started. "She's hotheaded, stubborn, and she gets into a lot of arguments, but she really is a good girl! She's kind, she's brave, and she tries to solve everyone's problems!"

"Those are fatal flaws in a magical girl," I explained.

"Really?" she asked sadly.

"Yes," I replied. "With kindness comes naïveté. Courage becomes foolhardiness and dedication has no reward; it's required if you want to survive. Those who do not understand this are not fit to be magical girls. That's why Mami almost lost her life."

"Don't talk like that about her!" Madoka shouted. Realizing her outburst, she sunk down in her seat. "Anyway, Sayaka will be fine, but… But I don't know what I'd do if something happened to her."

"You're really worried about Miki Sayaka, then," I said, removing the lid from my coffee.

She nodded and said, "I can't do anything to help her, so… So, please, Homura, be friends with Sayaka!"

I took a sip of my coffee and nodded. "I don't like to lie, and I don't make promises that I can't keep," I said, "so I'll just say that I'll do my best."

"Thank you," she replied, standing up.

"Madoka… Wait," I said hesitantly. She stopped. "Watch Miki Sayaka very carefully."

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"There!" Sayaka shouted as she spotted the grief seed implanted in the floor of the foot bridge. She ran toward it, and toward Kyoko and I, with Mami, Madoka, and Kyubey in tow.

"I still don't know why all six of us had to be here," Kyoko complained.

"You're the one who wanted into our group," I reminded her.

"Yeah, but that was before," she replied. "Who's the other girl? She's not even-"

"The other girl is Kaname Madoka," I told her. Kyoko didn't continue, instead staring in wonder at the approaching quartet. "Her potential is terrifying, isn't it?"

"Hello, Homura!" Madoka shouted as she realized our presence.

"Are you here as competition?" Mami asked, guarded.

"We're here to join you," I replied. "We'll be safer if we work together."

"What about the grief seed?" Mami asked. "Who gets this one?"

"This one is yours," I said. "We don't need them."

"What do you mean, we don't need them?" Kyoko demanded.

I turned to her and said sharply, "We don't need them." She backed up, uneasy, and nodded.

"Then let's go," Mami said, opening the portal to the labyrinth. Carefully, we filed inside; the labyrinth was simple and childlike in design, with scribbles and stick drawings running around, playing simple games of hide-and-seek and tag. She turned to Kyoko. "Tomoe Mami, pleased to meet you. This is Kaname Madoka and Miki Sayaka."

"Sakura Kyoko," she replied, not turning toward any of them.

"This is the world of Albertine," I warned. "Don't worry about the illusions; they're not smart enough to fight us. All they do is play games."

We walked through the labyrinth, down pathways of sidewalk covered in chalk doodles which squirmed under our feet as we stepped on them, past walls of purple bricks drawn from crayons and windows revealing a green sun and a yellow sky over fields of blue and orange, with strange stick-figure animals walking and grazing in the distance. Occasionally, a small stick-figure would run up to one of us, clinging and hiding on the side of one of our legs until another illusion ran up and tagged it, then both would run off to find somewhere else to hide, all the while echoes of "Ich willst einfach nur versteckspiel…" and "Willst jemand jemals mich gefunden?" rang in our ears.

Eventually, we made our way to the final chamber, a giant child's room, with dressers and beds and an enormous doll house, and walls of pink and a floor of orange, both covered in doodles and drawings. "Be careful, Sayaka," Madoka urged.

Sayaka laughed. "I'll be fine," she said, as she, Kyoko, and Mami ran into the middle of the room. "Where's the witch?"

"She's hiding," I replied. "You have to find her somewhere in this room and chase her down, but she won't fight you as long as you don't threaten her; just chase her into a corner, 'tag' her, and then kill her; all she wants to do is play games."

"Why aren't you fighting?" she asked.

"I need to protect Madoka, in case she comes after her," I replied. "Albertine does not know of anger or malice, only sadness and loneliness. She doesn't want to hurt you, she just doesn't realize she's doing it."

"There!" Sayaka shouted, pointing her sword toward the doll house. Behind it stood the twisted image of a young girl, her skin, parts of her body, as well as half her face, replaced by children's drawings. The parts of her body which were visible were covered in burns and ash. She ducked down, and Sayaka darted toward her, standing on the edge of the roof. "She's gone." The doll house started to change, burning for a second before revealing the charred remains of a house still standing with its front wall blown out. "Ah!"

"They're memories," I said. "Nightmares of what caused her to become a witch." The scribbles and drawings on the ground went black and began to form themselves into human shapes, rising from the floor in the form of four charred corpses. Slowly, they shambled toward Sayaka. She jumped at them and destroyed them with ease.

"Over there!" Mami shouted as Albertine's head popped out from under the covers of one of the beds. She ran toward her, and Albertine ducked back under the blanket, disappearing. The bed incinerated, leaving only the wrought iron posts and the springs. More corpses rose from the floor, and Mami destroyed them effortlessly.

"Here!" Madoka shouted, as Albertine dropped from the ceiling. She tried to move back, but bumped into an illusion. Surprised, she fell forward, landing on the table behind which we had stood.

"Madoka!" Sayaka shouted as Albertine landed on her back. Albertine tried to stand up quickly, but kept falling back down. Terrified, Madoka swung wildly at the witch, eventually striking her on the arm. Giggling filled the room and Albertine rolled off of her, walking over to the center of the room and putting her hands over her eyes.

"Eins," she said. "Zwei, drei, vier, fünf…"

"Now!" Homura said. "While she's counting!"

Kyoko, the closest to Albertine, dove at her, impaling the witch through the chest with her spear. "Sie fand mich!" she shouted as the drawings on her body unraveled.

The illusions of the labyrinth faded, returning them to the bridge.

"Ah!" Sayaka shouted, realizing that she was standing on the edge of the railing, perilously close to falling off.

"Sayaka!" Madoka shouted as Sayaka tried to gain her balance.

Sayaka jumped down, landing on the bridge itself. "There," she said, smiling, as the stood, returning to her normal form, her soul gem resting in her hand. Madoka charged at her, wrapping her arms around her friend. Sayaka fell back, landing against the railing, the soul gem falling from her hand toward the road below. It landed on the bed of a truck; Sayaka fainted.

"Sayaka?" Madoka asked, holding her friend. "Sayaka? Sayaka!"

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"How can I face Kyosuke with my body like this?" Sayaka asked aloud, talking to herself.

"You're still the same person," I replied telepathically. "He'll never know."

"But _I'll_ know," she said. "I'll know that I'm just a soul trapped in a box, that this isn't me."

"What is the nature of the soul?" I asked. "Kyubey does make one good point, which is that we don't know what our souls are, and yet he can take it and put it into a form which is tangible and real; if nothing else, he validates our existence, no matter how terrible his methods." I waited for a reply, but Sayaka was silent. "You're no different from you were back then. No, you're stronger, and you've lived, and now you're more."

"More what?" she asked bitterly.

"More," I replied. "Just more. You're stronger, and wiser, and more adult. You are in no way less."

"Hollow words on deaf ears," she replied. "Those things are human attributes; they no longer mean anything to something like me."

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Sayaka asked; I sat across the room, hiding in a booth of the same café in which Madoka and I had met the day previous.

"Love," Hitomi replied. "I've been keeping a secret from you and Madoka. I've… I've always been fond of Kamijo Kyosuke."

"R-Really?" Sayaka asked, smiling and giggling nervously to hide her shock. "Hitomi, I didn't think you had it in you! And that Kyosuke, such a lady killer!"

"You're his childhood friend, aren't you?" Hitomi asked.

"Well, I guess," Sayaka replied. "I mean, I'm kind of stuck with him…"

"Is that really all it is?" Hitomi asked, skeptical. "I've made up my mind. I'm not going to lie to myself anymore. How about you? Can you admit your true feelings?"

"What… What are you talking about?" Sayaka asked.

"You're my dear friend," Hitomi replied. "I don't want to take the man you love; you've had your eye on him much longer than I have, so you have the right to him."

"Hitomi…" Sayaka said, still in shock.

"Tomorrow, after school, I will confess my love to Kamijo," Hitomi concluded. "I'll wait a day. Sayaka, in that time, make sure that you have no regrets about not telling him how you feel."

"I…" Sayaka started, unable to finish. Hitomi stood from their booth and bowed, walking off. I sighed.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"Go to her," I told Madoka as Sayaka left her apartment building.

"Sayaka!" she shouted as she ran over. "Can I come with you? I don't want you to feel lonely."

"Why?" Sayaka asked, trembling. "Why are you so kind? I'm not worth it."

"Don't…" Madoka said.

"I had a regret today," Sayaka continued. "Just for a moment, I thought that if I didn't save Hitomi… I'm not worthy of being an ally of justice. I couldn't even look Mami in the face like this." Madoka ran over and held her friend as she cried. "Hitomi's taking Kyosuke away from me! I can't do anything about it! I'm already dead! I'm just a zombie! I can never embrace him like this! I can never tell him, 'kiss me!'" She cried on Madoka's shoulder for a minute more. "I'm sorry; thanks for that."

"Sayaka…" Madoka replied.

"I'm ok now, I just needed that," Sayaka insisted. "Alright, let's go hunt some witches!"

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"Sayaka…" Madoka whispered as they sat in the glass bus stop under the rain. "You're not supposed to fight like that… Don't lie and say it doesn't hurt. I can tell how badly you're hurting just watching you! Don't act like it's ok to get hurt just because you can't feel it!"

"If I don't do that, then I can't win," Sayaka replied. "I'm no good."

"Even if you win that way, it's not good for you," Madoka insisted.

"Good for me?" Sayaka scoffed. "What's good for me?" She stood and held out her soul gem. "How is anything good for me with my body like this?"

"Sayaka-" Madoka started.

"I'm just a lump of stone here to fight witches," Sayaka continued, "a walking corpse pretending it's alive. What can anyone do for me? There's no point in even thinking about it."

"But I want to make you happy somehow," Madoka whispered.

"Then you fight them," Sayaka replied, her voice empty. "Kyubey told me that you have more potential than anyone. You can take out witches without getting hurt like that."

"I…" Madoka said. "That's…"

"If you want to do something for me, then go ahead and see what my life is like," Sayaka said. "No, of course you won't. You're not going to throw away your humanity out of sympathy."

"Sympathy?" Madoka asked. "Sayaka-"

"I'm like this because even though you could do anything, you're doing nothing!" Sayaka said. "Don't play innocent while giving me lectures!" She walked out into the rain.

"Sayaka, wait!" Madoka insisted, following her into the rain.

"Stay away from me!" Sayaka demanded, running off down the middle of the road. Madoka stood in the rain, watching her friend run. I stood from my perch atop a building across the street and ran after her, rooftop by rooftop, staying out of sight. "I'm so stupid! Why did I say that to her? I'm hopeless!" She stopped, falling to her knees. I jumped down and pulled her out of the, sitting her against a streetlamp, just as a car went speeding through where she'd fallen.

"She just screamed my name every time I got hurt," Sayaka cried as she pulled her knees to her chest, burying her head in them. "The more it hit me, the more I laughed; I did what Kyubey said and shut out all pain. Giggling and screaming, I beat the witch until it died, blocking out the pain and the stress and Madoka's screams. Nothing mattered except killing it. I'm not human anymore! I can't love or worry; all I want to do is-"

"No, you're still human," I replied, standing over her. "We've been beaten and broken and lied to enough that we don't want to believe it anymore, but we're still human, and it's taken me this long to realize it. There have been humans who have done far, far worse than you or I, humans who rival Kyubey in their evil. Don't give up yet."

"Why?" she asked, looking up at me, rage burning in her eyes. "Why are you always there? How do you always know where we'll be when we need you? Are you just following us? Stalking us? Waiting for us to make some mistake?" She paused for a second. "Why are you protecting us?"

"Because that's what Madoka wants," I replied.

"She has nothing to do with this!" Sayaka screamed.

"She has _everything_ to do with this," I replied, walking off.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"Give me a break!" said a man on the train on which Sayaka sat; I hid in the shadows. "She already blew all the cash I gave her! Dumb bitches don't know how to hold onto money, I tell ya."

"Women may as well not even be human," the man next to him replied. "They're like dogs or something."

"They get excited like a damn puppy," the first man said, "but all ya gotta do to shut 'em up is smack 'em around a bit."

"Slacken the leash at all and they're all over the damn couch," the second man agreed. "Can't let 'em get too comfortable."

"What, you think a bar slut like you is gonna be doing this well in ten years?" the first man asked. "Know your place."

"Man, you're good at dumping them when they end up being more trouble than they're worth," the second man said. "I need to learn your tricks."

"Tell me about her," Sayaka said, walking over to the two men.

"What?" the first man asked.

"About the woman you're talking about," she replied. "I want to hear more about her."

"Hey, babe, you're too young to be out here this late," the second man said.

"She cares about you," Sayaka said. "She works hard to make you happy. You understand that, don't you? But you treat her like a dog. You don't even thank her. When she does something you don't like, you just dump her."

"What, you know her or something?" the first man asked, angry. "Of course not, so butt out."

"Is this world worth protecting?" she asked. "What have I been fighting for? Tell me! Tell me right now! Otherwise…"

She revealed her soul gem, the black corruption almost having engulfed it entirely, and I stopped time. I pulled out a grief seed and placed it in her hand, touching it to the soul gem. I pulled out a knife and held it hesitantly up to the first man's throat. Shoving away my doubt, I pushed it in and slit his throat, long and deep, doing the same to the second man. I wiped the tiny traces of blood on the knife on the first man's shirt, put the knife away, and took a step back as time resumed. Sayaka screamed as the men's heads fell back and blood sprayed from their throats, covering her. "Never forget," I said from beside her, outside the range of spray. "Never, ever forget that _this_ is what you were about to do. Burn it forever into your mind so that you will _never_ forget it."

"What the hell is going on?" she screamed. She looked down at her hand, noticing the weight difference, in time to see the grief seed pull the corruption from her soul gem.

She took the grief seed and tossed it at me. I pulled her back into the shadows and took a bag from the dial on my arm. "Get changed," I ordered as I handed the bag to her. She opened it and pulled out a clean set of clothes and a towel. "Tonight, you were going to kill those two men- I said get changed." She hesitated, but began to wipe the blood from her face and hands before removing her shirt. "By killing them, you would take the final step to becoming a witch."

"Couldn't you have saved them?" she asked, still very much shaken up. "Why didn't you just pull me away, or pull them away?"

"I've tried that," I replied, harsh and aggressive. "In the end, you always became a witch, and you always cursed them; they'd have died anyway. And that's what you want, isn't it? You wanted them dead because they didn't fit into your idea of how the world should be, and now they're dead. Put your old clothes in the bag."

She complied, handing it back to me. "But…" she started, looking at her soul gem. It was still black and clouded.

"You're doing better than I thought, having found out that you were about to become a witch," I said, my tone lightening up a bit.

"I could feel it," she replied, her voice starting to sound empty. "I could feel the witch digging its way out from inside of me. But why is my soul gem still corrupted?"

"Because you're still going to become a witch," I replied. "Unless we can get rid of the cause of your grief, it will continue to eat at you until you can stand it no more, and then you will die and become a witch, and we will have to kill you; no amount of cleaning will help belay your fate for long." I paused. "In the end, Madoka will know that you became a witch, and she will watch as you die. Do you want to do that to her?"

"N-No," Sayaka replied, completely shocked.

I slapped her across the face, and tears began to well in her eyes. "Then listen to me," I replied. "You saw Hitomi talk to Kyosuke. You know she confessed her love to him. You don't know how he responded. Think, how did she look?"

"How do you know all this?" she asked.

"I have seen more versions of you than there are wishes in the world," I replied. "I have lived this same terrible month more times than I can count, and I have seen every possible way for this to play out except for this one, because now, I am directing the lives of the four of you. Let me tell you of the future if you do die: You become a witch. We kill you. You are labeled forever as missing. Hitomi believes that because of her telling Kyosuke of her feelings for him, you to ran away or killed yourself and are rotting away in some ditch somewhere, never to be found. Madoka becomes useless to her as a friend, so bereaved by losing you in that way, so she turns to Kyosuke, who is also very upset over losing an old friend. They grieve together, their bond growing stronger." I took a breath. "The reason that they are together, in the beginning and in the end, is because of _you_. Nothing else. _You_ gave up. _You_ couldn't tell him. You couldn't even be happy for your friend. And now, I am giving you a chance to fix it."

"Why are you doing this?" she asked, falling to her knees, emotionally exhausted.

"I just want to help you," I replied. "Why can't you believe that."

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "I think it's just intuition. I can tell you're a liar. You always look like you've given up on everything. You're always speaking empty words. And right now, you say you're doing it for my sake, but I bet you're really after something completely different."

"You're right," I replied. "I'm not doing this just for you. I'm trying to protect Madoka from watching you suffer and fall. No matter how many times I've gone through this damned month, you and I have never been able to along, because we don't have anything in common except Madoka, but that's enough for me to want to help you, not for your sake, but for hers. But you're wrong about one thing; my words are not empty, you simply have nothing left for them to resonate against. You've sealed away anything which could help you, leaving only the empty void of the horrible truth of what Kyubey did to you. But I'm going to fix that. Now come on, before someone discovers the bodies." I stopped time and forced open the doors to the train, jumping down onto the gravel by the tacks, pulling Sayaka out with me.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"Oh, Miki Sayaka, Akemi Homura," Hitomi said, answering the door to her house in her pajamas.

"I apologize if we woke you, Shizuki Hitomi," I said.

"No; I couldn't sleep," she replied. "Please, come in." She led us to her kitchen.

"Where are your parents?" Sayaka asked, still strung out on the crash from the adrenaline high on the train.

"They're out of town on business," Hitomi replied. "Can I get you anything?"

"Tea for Sayaka," I said.

"N-No, thank you," she stuttered. I glared at her, and she stared down at the table, taking a seat. "Actually, y-yes."

Hitomi glanced from her to me and back to her before turning around and preparing some tea. "So, what brings you here at this hour?" she asked.

"Ho-I wanted to know how things went with Kamijo today," Sayaka said.

Hitomi stopped, placing her hands on the sides of the stove for a minute before turning around and smiling. "He said that he's been so busy, first with his violin and then with recovering, that he never even gave a thought to that sort of thing!" she said with a laugh. "Looks like I saved you from making a fool of yourself in front of him."

Sayaka didn't react, only saying, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," she replied. "You spent so much time around him, I guess you just knew he wasn't worried about those kinds of things right now."

"Y-Yeah," Sayaka said. "Maybe I did." She raised her head as Hitomi placed a cup of tea in front of her. She smiled weakly and took it, taking a sip.

"Hey, why don't you stay over here tonight?" Hitomi offered. "You, too, Akemi."

"Thank you," I said, "but I have to be going."

"Another time, then," Hitomi said, turning to Sayaka. "Come on, go upstairs and we can talk about how silly this whole thing has been!"

Hitomi turned to me and led me to the door. "Thank you," I said.

"For what?" she asked.

"Sayaka needs a good friend," I said, walking out. I looked up, seeing Sayaka stare out the windows at me.

"Please, tell Madoka I'm sorry for hurting her," Sayaka pleaded.

"Tell her yourself tomorrow," I replied. She nodded and moved away from the window.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

Author's Note:

Sad chapter is sad. This was a bit tricky for me, in that it's revealing things to Sayaka that are very difficult to accept, but I realized that the best way to have her react is for the events to take their natural toll on her mind; she'd taken blow after blow, and eventually it broke her spirit, just like in episode 8, but instead of changing into a witch because of killing those two (arguable) innocents, Homura killed them and showed Sayaka exactly what it was that she was about to do. This broke Sayaka not by the proverbial despair event horizon, but by shattering her entire outlook on life, snapping her back to reality, leaving her nothing but a beaten, broken, sad, lonely little girl, which is exactly how she should be.

As for Kamijo's reaction, watch episode 8 again, right around the 9:25 mark. At 9:28 (at least in the copy of the episode I have), the expression on Hitomi's face is not one of joy, but of sadness. Do not let the preceding or following shots of her confuse you. When she tells Kamijo, and he responds, she is not pleased.

This is also the end of the anime's involvement in the story; episode 9 is fighting witch-Sayaka, episode 10 is the obligatory backstory episode, episode 11 is preparation for Walpurgisnacht, and episode 12 is the finale, so from here on out, this is going to get slower than an update every other day or so. That is, unless I really get inspired. I want at least eight chapters, but I might have to cut it down if I can't continue it without contradicting what I have planned for the future; despite this entire story being a massive retcon, I don't want to retcon myself for the sake of length. It's not fair to my story, or to you.

Oh! And check my story Albertine Cassandra for backstory on the witch Albertine.


	5. Chapter Five: Reveal and Accept

Chapter Five: Reveal and Accept

"Hi, Madoka," Sayaka said weakly as she and Hitomi walked up to Madoka and I from behind.

Madoka and I turned around at the sound of her friends voice and ran toward her, wrapping her arms around Sayaka. "Sayaka!" she shouted. "Your mom said you didn't come home last night."

"I spent the night at Hitomi's house," Sayaka replied, her voice still soft.

Madoka gasped. "Without me?" she asked, hurt.

"Well, uh, it was sort of a last-minute thing," Sayaka replied in her defense.

"It was my idea," I said.

Madoka released her friend and turned to me. "Why?" she asked telepathically.

"That's not something you should know," I replied, turning back around and continuing on toward school. The others hurried to catch up.

"You go on ahead," Sayaka said as we reached the steps leading to the school. I watched as she made her way over to a group of students who were standing off to the side. As she approached, Kamijo stood up and greeted her. They talked, well out of earshot, both visibly nervous but laughing every once in a while.

"Homura?" Hitomi asked. "What's really going on?"

"A very wise woman once said, 'In the end, only kindness matters,'" I replied. "There's a storm coming, and I'm just trying to make sure that, no matter what happens, everyone comes out as best as they can."

"You mean the typhoon?" Hitomi asked. "We've seen typhoons before; we know what to do."

"Yes," I replied. "I'm sure you do."

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"A-Homura," Hitomi said as she and Sayaka walked up to me during our break, "we need to talk."

"Follow," I ordered, leading them up to the roof. "You really want to know what's happening, don't you?"

"Yes," Hitomi replied.

"Show her," I said, turning to Sayaka. She and I released our powers, revealing our magical girl forms.

Hitomi gasped. "Wow!" she said. "Uh… What…"

"Sayaka and I are magical girls," I told her. "We are given these powers in exchange for a wish and the requirement that we risk our lives fighting witches, monsters which we will eventually ourselves become."

"What could you want so bad you'd agree to that?" she asked.

"Most of us don't know the details when we agree to it," I told her.

"So, uh, what did you wish for?" Hitomi asked.

"I can't tell you," I replied. "There are some things which you would not be able to understand, and the only reason I'm telling you any of this is because I believe it to be the best thing for Sayaka."

"Then tell me what happened last night," she said.

"I almost killed someone," Sayaka said with an uneasy smile. Hitomi gasped. She returned to her normal form and placed her soul gem in Hitomi's hand as she took the other hand in hers; black clouds floated through the soul gem. "That's my soul gem. When you become a magical girl, the bastard who does this to us rips out your soul and puts it inside one of these." Tears began to form in her eyes.

"Sayaka, don't," I warned.

"No!" she screamed, turning to me. She took a moment to calm herself before continuing. "Hitomi is my friend, and I want her to know what's happening."

"Alright," I replied, "but I can't know how this will turn out."

"I know," she said, turning back to Hitomi. "That night where you woke up in the warehouse, you were attacked by a witch. It was trying to get you to kill yourself, but I killed it first. I just happened to make my wish that night."

Stunned, Hitomi asked, "Wh-What did you wish for?"

"I wished that Kamijo's hand would get better," she said, rubbing the back of her neck nervously. "I thought I just wanted him to be better, but I really wanted to be the one to make him better."

Hitomi thought for a moment, putting the pieces together. "So, when I…" she started.

"Yeah," Sayaka replied. "You told me the morning after I found out that my soul was inside the gem. I was bitter and angry, thinking that you were taking him from me, thinking that I couldn't do anything because I wasn't human anymore, that he was throwing me away after I was there for him for so long. I was so angry, and then I met two guys who were…" She broke down into tears, gasping for breath and wrapping her arms tight around her chest, unable to continue.

I took the soul gem from Hitomi. "They were using women and throwing them away when they stopped being obedient," I finished.

"I would have killed them if she hadn't been there," Sayaka said, still squeezing her chest. "I'd have killed them, and then I'd have died and become a witch."

Hitomi stood there, completely still, completely silent. I reached out to her, and she jerked away. "That's why you brought her over to my house?" she asked. "How did you know I'd be able to help?"

"Because you're her friend," I replied. "And, more importantly, you were the cause of her problem."

"Does Madoka know about this?" she asked.

"Some of it, yes," I replied, "but do not let her know that you know anything; there is considerably more going on than you understand, and paramount to our survival is her ignorance."

"So, she's not a magical girl like you, then?" Hitomi asked.

"No," I replied. "Not yet."

"Hitomi?" Sayaka asked hesitantly. "I want you to have Kamijo. If we were together, I could never tell him the truth, about what I do or about his hand, and I don't want to have to keep lying to him."

Hitomi fell backward, landing against the fence. "After all of that, finding out that Sayaka wants you to have Kamijo is what finally gets you," I said with a small laugh.

"I'm serious," Sayaka insisted. "I finally realize it now; I love him, and I want him to be happy."

"Thank you," Hitomi replied as she gained her balance. She walked over and hugged Sayaka, who was still holding her chest. "And, um, thanks for saving me."

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"Tomoe Mami, I need you to believe me, no matter how hard that may be," I told her as we sat in her apartment.

Mami nodded. "I'll do my best," she said.

I paused for a moment, gathering my thoughts, making sure I knew what to say. "Kyubey is withholding information from you, from all magical girls, which would have stopped you from making that stupid contract with him in the first place," I replied. "As if the fact that he tears out your soul isn't bad enough."

"Like what?" she demanded. "What could possibly be so bad that I would choose to die instead?"

"Show me your soul gem," I ordered. She revealed it. "Now set it on the table."

"Why?" she asked. I glared at her, and she complied.

"I know the origins of witches," I replied. "Have you ever noticed the similarities between grief seeds and soul gems?"

"Yes, but Kyubey told me that it's a natural part of the process, and that's it," she said.

"Soul gems become grief seeds when the suffering of a magical girl is too much for her to stand anymore," I told her. "In other words, when the world has finally crushed your will to live, when you realize that there is nothing ahead of you but bitter grief and sadness, you become a witch."

"That's not…" she started to say. "How can that be possible? Why wouldn't Kyubey warn us?"

"Because he knows that if you knew, you wouldn't ever have agreed," I replied. "Wouldn't you have chosen to die rather than knowing you'd eventually become a monster?" I looked at her, glancing between her face and her soul gem, watching as both filled with darkness. "You're reacting like this because somewhere deep inside, you've always suspected it, but you shoved it down and hid it so well that it would never come out again. I know what's going through your mind right now-"

"How could you possibly know?" she screamed.

"Because I know what happens when you find out," I said calmly. "I know that you're questioning your choice. I know that you're regretting it. I know you're wondering how many people you'll kill when you do become a witch. And I know that you're looking desperately for some way to escape." She tried to grab her soul gem, but I took it before she could. "And for the first time in all the times I've lived through this month, I can tell you that there _is_ a way out; you _can_ escape."

"How?" she pleaded, tears welling in her eyes. "Tell me; whatever it is, I'll do it."

"Madoka's wish," I replied. "On Walpurgisnacht, Madoka is going to show up and save us all."

"How do you know?" she asked, the tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I just do," I replied. "One way or another, she'll find a wish to save us all. That's why I wouldn't let her make her contract yet."

"And to think I was going to have her ask Kyubey for a cake," she replied with a laugh, wiping her cheeks.

"You always do," I replied.

"Can I ask you a question?" she asked.

"Go ahead," I said.

"You travel through time, right?" she asked. "And you've met a bunch of different versions of me?"

"Yes," I nodded.

"What… What was I like?" she asked hesitantly.

"Are you sure you want to know?" I asked. "Some of it is not pleasant."

"Yes," she acknowledged. "Tell me everything."

"When I first me you, Madoka had already contracted with Kyubey, and you were training her," I said. "You were the same happy, protecting person you've always been, insisting on standing up to Walpurgisnacht alone. Sometimes, you find out about becoming a witch when it happens to Miki Sayaka, and you proceed to try to kill Madoka, Kyoko, me, and yourself out of the desire to keep us from becoming witches, all with varying degrees of success; it should be rather obvious that you never killed me. Other times, you team up with Sayaka, Kyoko, and myself to take down Walpurgisnacht, but we fail; Madoka does it, and then instantly becomes the strongest witch of all time, threatening to destroy the earth, sometimes in days, sometimes in weeks, sometimes in hours. In yet another timeline, you die fighting Charlotte as you would have if I had not saved you; I tried to protect you, but you tied me up, thinking that I was there to undermine you because I didn't want you to bring Madoka into this life, and neither she nor Sayaka had contracted with Kyubey by that time. In the last world I saw, as far as I know, you're still living and doing well."

"Was I training Madoka in that one, as well?" she asked.

I hesitated. "No," I explained. "Madoka created that timeline by recreating the universe with her wish to kill all witches with her own hand before they had a chance to become witches; she believed that magical girls, who fought so hard to protect the world, should be smiling until the end."

Mami began to cry again. "I don't know why I even believe this," she laughed through the tears. "It's just so absurd, but that does sound like something Madoka would do."

"This world is the one where I get everything right," I said, taking her hands. "No deaths, no witches, no sacrifices."

"I think I like this world the best," Mami said, smiling.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"Um, Homura?" Madoka said as I walked out of Mami's apartment building. "Can we talk?"

"Of course," I replied.

"Well, um, it's just that… I want to know what's going on," she said. "Why is Sayaka acting so strange? What did Hitomi want to talk to you about? Why were you talking to Mami?"

I collapsed to my knees and cried; she knelt down and took me in her arms. "I'm sorry," I said after a while. "I'm so, so sorry, but I can't tell you. I hate having to keep this a secret, more that you know, but it's for your own good."

"Oh, ok," she replied, releasing me. "Sayaka and Mami trust you, so I will, too."

I broke down into tears again. "Thank you," I whispered to her.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

Author's Note:

I hate exposition chapters. They're slow to write, they're hard to tie into existing continuity (because EVERYTHING has to be checked and double-checked to make sure I don't have any holes, even though I always do have some holes in the end), and they're just not all that fun. As much as I hate them, though, I had to use this one as a way to inform Mami, so I decided to use it to resolve Sayaka's issues to a level where she was functional again. This also starts the pairings; seven people, one pair decided, who gets who and who is left alone?

Oh! I've started another Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica project by the name of "Negai: WilliamsMinxs". You should go read it.


	6. Chapter Six: Blue Screens

Chapter Six: Blue Screens

Sayaka stood as Miss Saotome released us for lunch, and walked over to me, Madoka close behind, and Hitomi coming over soon after. She turned and looked through the glass wall. Seeing Mami, she waved; Mami didn't respond, only continuing to walk towards us.

As she entered the room, Sayaka said, "Hey Mami." Mami walked up to us and grabbed a pencil from my desk, stabbing it deep into Sayaka's shoulder. Immediately after, she fell over, unconscious. Sayaka stumbled back in shock, falling onto a desk. I stood up and looked over Sayaka's shoulder as Madoka dropped to the ground and held Mami, trying to see if she was alright; gasps and screams came from the rest of the room.

I walked over and picked Mami up off the ground. "We need to take them to the nurse's office," I said.

Madoka stood and helped Sayaka to her feet. Sayaka tried to walk, but fell back, Madoka catching her and wrapping Sayaka's uninjured arm over her shoulders. "Thanks," Sayaka said.

"Wait," Miss Saotome said.

I turned to her and replied, "Keep everyone calm," before walking out of the room.

"Um, ok," she said, surprised.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"Get out," I said to the nurse as we entered her office. She looked at me, confused. "I said, _get out_!" Nervously, she complied, and I laid Mami, still unconscious, on one of the beds before turning attention to Sayaka. "Release you powers." She complied, sitting on the other table. "You should shut out the pain for this."

"I always have the pain shut out," she admitted. I placed my hand on the pencil and waited for her to be ready. She nodded and I pulled it out. Instantly, a circle of notes covered the wound, healing it.

I turned around as I heard Mami move, just in time to see her pulling a pair of scissors from one of the drawers. She prepared to throw them, but I took them from her before she could. She tried to get up and release her powers, but I took her soul gem from her before she could, placing it on the table beside her. "Hold her down!" I shouted. Sayaka came over, climbing on top of her and holding her hands down by her sides; Madoka stayed stunned. I tore through the drawers, looking for some way to restrain her, eventually finding a roll of medical tape and some gauss. "Hold her arms to the sides of the bed." Sayaka complied, and I wrapped Mami's to the rails of the bed first in gauss and then in several layers of tape. "Now her legs." We repeated the process, rendering her immobile.

"Let me out of here!" Mami snarled, pulling on her bonds. "And maybe I'll kill you all quickly!"

"What's going on?" I demanded.

"My eyes have been opened," she laughed. "I can now see the witches for what they truly are; screaming, crying, hurting girls like you and I, wanting only not to feel so very alone. We, dear magical girls, are the real monsters! We kill because it's easier than finding a way to fix the witches!"

"You can't fix a witch," I said.

"You've never even tried!" she shouted. "You kill because you want to!"

"We kill to protect," Sayaka said.

"Then kill yourselves," Mami replied. "We're all destined to become witches; just do in with yourselves now and get it over with. Isn't that the humane thing, rather than killing countless people as a witch? You all must die, and so must every magical girl, even me!"

I punched her as hard as I could, knocking her unconscious. "Why?" Madoka screamed, running to Mami.

I grabbed her as she tried to go by and said, "It's for her own good. Whatever's going on, she's not in control of her body anymore." I fell down, feeling my body fall out of my control.

The world was black; my eyes were open, but I couldn't see. I took stock of the situation, paying attention to every detail of every sense. My feet were on the floor; I could feel the cold of smooth stone below my feet. My arms were by my sides, my legs spread shoulder-width apart. I tried to move, but I couldn't. The wind blew past my body, and I realized I was naked; naked, blind, deaf, and dumb, sealed off in some world not my own.

"Hello, my dear," said a female voice from the darkness, soft and smooth, but strong. "I am so glad you could make it." She giggled. "You magical girls are all so easy to break; once the soul is outside the body, there really is nothing for you to cling to, and it makes pulling your consciousness into my world so much easier… But that Mami friend of yours, she was so very easy to break."

'What the hell did you do to her?' I thought to myself.

"Oh, here, let me help you with that," she said.

I could feel my mouth moving, speaking outside my control. "What the hell did you do to her?" my voice said.

"Why, I just opened up her mind to what she was really feeling, deep down," she replied.

"Where am I?" I asked. "What have you done to me?"

"Your mind has been moved to my world," she said. "To illustrate, I think I will return your senses so you can watch your friends die." With that, I could see and hear again, but I was still immobile; I had been moved to a chair, facing Mami.

"M-Madoka," Mami said weakly as she came back to consciousness. Madoka ran to her. "What happened?"

"I-I don't know," Madoka said nervously.

"Can you untie me?" Mami asked weakly. "Please?"

"I don't think I should…" Madoka replied. "I-" Mami screamed in pain, her body convulsing. "What happened?"

"I'm alright, I just-" Mami started before screaming again. She started breathing heavily. "Come closer, I…" Madoka leaned in closer, her face inches from Mami's, waiting anxiously for an explanation. Mami's raised her head quickly and kissed Madoka on the lips.

Stunned, Madoka stayed there for a moment, their lips together. "Mami…" she whispered as Mami broke the kiss. She backed away slowly, climbing into a corner and curling up, squeezing her knees to her chest. "Mami…"

My senses went black again. "Well, that's not what I was expecting, but it's a step in the right direction," the woman's voice said with a sigh.

"What are you doing?" I demanded.

"Oh, it's beautifully simple," she replied. "I just broke Madoka; her first kiss, stolen by the girl she looks up to more than anyone else, only to find out later that all the symbolism of that action means nothing to Mami. I can't drag her soul in here like I have yours, so I'll just break it from the outside."

"And Mami," I said.

"Hmm?" she asked.

"You have Mami's soul, as well," I replied.

"I do certainly have something of hers," she giggled cruelly. "Ooh, here comes another one. But wait, I can't affect her… Oh, this is wonderful; I think she's going to do what I wanted of her own free will, without any interference from me at all. I think I'll let you watch as all this happens…"

My vision and hearing returned again as Sayaka entered the nurses office. "Madoka?" she asked, looking around.

"Mami…" Madoka whispered, barely audible. "Mami kissed me…"

Without looking at Madoka, Sayaka drew her sword and ran over to Mami, sticking the point of it to her throat. "Why?" Sayaka demanded, her voice seething with hatred. "Why would you do that to her?"

Mami raised her head slowly, the tip of Sayaka's sword slicing into the side of her neck. Sayaka stared on in shock. "We all must die sometime," she said. "But if I could drive her away from us, from all desire to be a magical girl, then I may have saved her from an early grave." She turned her head, Sayaka's sword slicing deeper. "Too bad I couldn't do the same for you. Now, do me a favor and finish me off." Sayaka put her hand on Mami's head and pushed it back down to the pillow, keeping her sword very still. Carefully, she pulled her sword away out and dropped it to the ground. "Aw, you're no fun."

Sayaka grabbed the roll of gauss I'd used earlier and wrapped it tightly around Mami's neck, taping it on securely. "Whatever's wrong with you, we're going to fix it," she said.

"Sayaka!" I screamed telepathically as strong as I could. "My soul gem is on my left hand. Take it and run out of here, as fast as you can!"

"What?" she asked.

"Just do it!" I screamed back. "Put it outside and come back for my body!" She complied, taking the soul gem from my hand and running out of the room.

"You can't possibly thi-" the woman's voice started to say before I blacked out completely.

What felt like an instant later, I found myself sitting outside, my back propped up against a tree, as Sayaka slipped my soul gem back onto my hand. "Thank you," I said, standing up.

"What's going on?" Sayaka asked.

"I don't know," I replied. "There's someone here who can control us. She feels like a witch, but she's intelligent. She said she couldn't influence you, though, and now that I know she's there, I can try to resist her." I started walking back toward the school.

"Wait," Sayaka said. "Are you sure?"

"We don't have any other choice," I said, continuing on. "She did something to Mami, Madoka's cowering in a corner, and who knows what's else she's capable of. If we don't stop her, she could kill the whole school."

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"And that, class, is why you should never pick a man based on-" Miss Saotome said as we walked back into the classroom. "Is everything alright? Oh, you changed your clothes. It's-"

"This world is unwell," Kamijo interrupted, standing up and limping to the middle of the classroom without his crutches. "Pride and greed and lust flow through the streets, from one person to another like a plague set upon mankind by all the evils of the soul." Black vines descended from the ceiling, covering the walls, and the door snapped shut. "The wicked and sinful nature of mankind will no longer be tolerated." He stretched his arms out and tendrils of black descended from the ceiling, wrapping around him and pulling him up.

Sayaka dove forward, cutting the blackness which lifted him. He fell to his feet. I pulled an assault rifle from the dial on my arm and aimed it at him. He swung at me, and I kicked him, knocking him to the ground.

"You cannot defy God!" Kamijo's voice boomed, shaking the room, as I stood on his chest.

"I've met God," I replied as I aimed my rifle for his head. "You're not her." I moved my finger to the trigger.

"Wait!" Hitomi screamed.

I pulled my finger away quickly. "What?" I asked, not taking my eyes from Kamijo's head.

"Don't…" she started. "Don't kill him."

"He's not Kamijo anymore," I told her. "Once you become a-"

"Homura," Sayaka interjected, "we don't even know what he is." She walked over to him and looked him in the eye. "What are you?"

"I am retribution for sin," he replied.

"E-Excuse me," Nakazawa said, approaching Sayaka cautiously. "I think I have an idea." He walked over to the other side of Kamijo. "As a representative of humanity, I declare your actions an act of aggression, and under the agreed-upon conventions of war, I demand you state your origin."

Kamijo laughed, shaking the room again. "There are no such conventions," he said finally, "but I respect your attempt. My true name has been lost to the ages, but I am known as Sofie. I was once a magical girl like your friends Sayaka and Homura, but my wish, like yours, was my folly; I wished to be immortal, and so I am. The grief ate my soul, turning me into a witch, but my mind, my soul, made forever alive by my wish, kept me conscious. Miki Sayaka and Akemi Homura, you have seen the despair event horizon for yourselves. Imagine spending every moment of the rest of time with that feeling tearing at your soul."

"What are you doing here?" Homura demanded.

"I am on a mission of mercy," he replied, "to kill all magical girls before they become witches; to liberate you all from this terrible fate."

"Why did you do this to Kamijo?" Hitomi screamed.

"To hurt you and Sayaka," he replied. "In turn, your pain hurts Madoka, which hurts Mami and Homura. Even watching all of this will scar forever all your classmates. In the end, this causes the most pain for everyone involved."

I snapped my rifle up, still looking down the sights, as tendrils descended from the ceiling. "Sayaka!" I shouted as I fired at them. She jumped up and wrapped her legs around one of the lights, hitting the black mass on the ceiling again and again as hard as she could with her sword.

"Here!" she shouted as the black gave way to a face, grotesque and shifting, black tears pouring from its eyes.

"Oh, so you've found me," Sofie said, quickly covering up her face. I stopped time and stacked up desks, climbing up to her. I took out my knife and cut the black from her face. As it cleared, revealing her eye, I took my knife and shoved it in as far as it would go. I pulled out my pistol and fired into the face as fast as I could before time resumed.

Sofie screamed, her tendrils growing larger and larger until they exploded, spraying black liquid everywhere. The lights flickered back on, and the remains of Sofie slid down the glass walls, revealing the world outside the room before dissolving away. Sayaka and I disbursed our powers, returning to our normal forms. "Go check on Madoka," I said. Sayaka nodded and left, running to the nurse's office. I picked Kamijo up off the floor and sat him in his desk; Hitomi ran over and stood by his side.

"What was that?" Miss Saotome asked, in her voice a mix of shock and outrage.

"That was…" I started, not sure how I could explain this away. "Something Impossible. That was a witch, and Sayaka and I are magical girls. We exist to fight the witches, who exist to cause as much pain to the world as they can. That is all I can tell you. I know that you do not understand, but for your own good, you must never speak of this to anyone again; it is better if you just forget that this ever happened."

"Ugh," Kamijo said as he woke up. "Homura? I know. I know now about Sayaka." He held up his hand and flexed it.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"Go take Madoka home, Sayaka," I said as I walked back into the nurse's office. "I'll watch Mami."

"No," Madoka said weakly. Sayaka helped her up off the floor and walked her out of the room with little resistance.

I turned around at the sound of Mami crying, softly at first but growing quickly to wails of terror and gasps for breaths, screaming and struggling in her bonds. "Kill me!" she screamed. "I did it!"

"No, it wasn't," I said as I moved over to her, sitting by her bed. "You were being controlled by a witch."

"No!" she screamed. "I could feel it flaying away the parts of my mind that kept me from killing you… She was stripping me of my humanity, piece by piece cutting away everything and everyone I loved… Everything I did was because I wanted to do it! I was in control the whole time! I stabbed Sayaka! I tried to get Madoka to-" I wrapped my arms around her as best as I could and held her as she flailed. "Get off of me!"

"Shhh," I whispered to her. "We forgive you." Her screams returned between gasps for breaths and sobbing. Her flailing died down, weakened by exhaustion to the point where she was simply shaking.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

Author's Notes:

I lied.

* * *

><p>Also, an author update:<p>

I'm sorry for taking so long to update; I've been called away from my ability to write because of business, and I'm just now getting it sorted out. However, it _is_ getting done, and I _am_ getting back into writing now. I've also hit quite a bit of writer's block, which is taking its damn sweet time to get resolved, so if you feel like helping, send me a message or leave me a review with an anime or manga you think would help me get over these nagging problems. It doesn't matter whether or not it fits my writing style or subject or anything, if you like it, suggest it and I'll check it out.

Until next time, peace out and rock on, my dear fen.


	7. Chapter Seven: Fallout

Chapter Seven: Fallout; What Comes Next, And How We Got Here

I stared out the window beside my bed as I sat watching Mami. The sky was clear, and the moon was just barely visible above the surrounding buildings. 'Madoka,' I thought, 'if you're there, please, just tell me what's going on. What's wrong with her? How do I fix it?'

Mami turned over, and my attention turned to her. "What time is it?" she asked, her voice cracking.

"I don't know," I said. "Around ten." I handed her a glass of water. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yes," she replied. "Thank you." I turned my gaze back toward the sky out my window. "How long was I... Was I asleep?"

"Only half a day," I replied. "What do you remember?"

She cleared her throat and said, "Everything."

"Do you remember waking up at all?" I asked.

"I remember opening my eyes, but I couldn't..." she started. "It felt like I couldn't think; everything was numb."

"You should eat," I said. "Do you think you can walk?"

She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. "I'll manage," she said. She took slow, deliberate steps, carefully making her way toward the door to my room. I followed close behind her. We went down the hall and into the main room. She took a seat on the couch as I went to the kitchen.

I turned on the burner below the tea kettle and began to look through the fridge. "If you want to watch some television, the remote is on the table," I said as I pulled out some ramen from the fridge. I put it in a pot on the stove and turned on the burner. "Point the remote at the ceiling to use it." She picked up the remote, looked it over, and pointed it at the ceiling. The walls went blue.

"Your walls change color?" Mami asked.

"I had projectors installed in the ceiling," I replied. I pulled a tea cup from the cupboard and filled it. "Would you like anything in your tea?"

"No, thank you," she replied. She changed the channel to a popular magical girl anime. "I started watching this show because it reminded me that there are more of us out there."

"How long have you been fighting?" I asked. I poured the ramen into a bowl. I sat in the chair across from her and placed the tea and ramen in front of her. She remained still and incredibly tense. "Is everything alright?"

"It's... I'm fine," she said, taking the tea. "It's been three years now."

"And you spent all that time fighting alone?" I asked.

"No," she replied. She took a sip of the tea. "I started out working with two other girls. We were a good team for the first few weeks, but we got greedy and started fighting with each other. In the end, one of them killed the other, stole the grief seed, and ran away. I never heard from her again." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I've been alone for so long, it's just taking some time for me to get used to having people around who care about me. It's..." The tea cup fell from her hand and shattered against the table as she started to cry.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"What time is it?" Mami asked as she stirred from her sleep.

"Almost eight," I replied.

She jumped up off the couch. "We're going to be late for school!" she said.

"The school canceled classes today, after an entire class had a shared hallucination," I replied.

"Oh," she said, sitting down again. "You mean what happened yesterday?" I nodded. "Did they find out?"

"I told them the basics," I said. "You're secret is still safe; I think, I hope, that they'll just assume that you were being controlled the same way Kamijo was."

"Kamijo?" she asked, concerned. "That's the boy Sayaka likes, right?"

"Yes," I replied. "He was possessed by Sofie, because it would hurt us the most. He knows about Sayaka's wish now, as well."

"This is bad," she said.

"It could be," I replied hesitantly. "It could also be good; she won't have to keep lying to him."

"But people aren't supposed to know about our powers," she objected.

"According to who?" I asked. "Kyubey?"

"He might be in danger," she said.

"No more now than he was before," I replied. "Nobody, not a person nor a witch, is going to target him because he knows that we're magical girls. Not if they want to live, anyway."

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"How's Mami?" Sayaka asked as she and Madoka walked into my apartment.

"Better," I replied. "She woke up late last night. She's back in my room reading a book right now, if you want to see her."

"Come on," she said, pulling on Madoka's arm.

"I need to talk to Homura," Madoka replied. "You go ahead." Sayaka shrugged and walked off toward my bedroom. "I had a dream last night, but I don't think it was a dream. I was talking to myself. I don't remember what we talked about, but when I woke up, I was holding this." She pulled a small envelope from her bag. A pink ribbon was tied around it in a bow. She held it out to me. "It has your name on it."

I took it and opened it cautiously. "Homura," I read aloud, "because you lost one, but will soon make a new friend."

"What does it mean?" she asked.

"Come on, let's go see Mami," I said, ignoring her question. I led her back into the bedroom. Sayaka sat on the chair by my bed as Mami lay curled up, facing away. I pulled Madoka back and walked over to Sayaka. I put my hand on her shoulder and she stood and followed me out. I led them to the front door. "Come back tomorrow. I'll make sure she's ready to see you then." They bowed and left. As the door shut, Mami walked out. "Are you alright?"

"Yes," she said. "No. Maybe. It was just the shock of seeing her after what happened. I tried to have her kill me, after all. I'm just glad I didn't see Madoka." Her hands started to shake, and she walked over and dropped onto the couch. "I can't forgive myself for what I did to her."

"We all make mistakes," I said, sitting down next to her.

"I don't think you've ever made one like that," she replied.

"I've done worse," I said, faking a smile.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but what did you do that could be worse than... That?" she asked hesitantly.

"Do you remember that I said that in some of the alternate timelines, you tried to kill us?" I asked. She nodded. "It started because Sayaka became a witch, and we had to kill her. After we did, we all had our own breakdowns; Madoka wept, Kyoko was angry that she lost a friend... You went insane and trapped me and shot Kyoko, and then, as you were about to shoot me, Madoka killed you. She and I went up against Walpurgisnacht, and we lost. Madoka had one last grief seed, and she used it to save me, asking me to go back and make sure she never sold her soul to Kyubey. Her last wish was that she wouldn't have to turn into a witch, and so I killed her. With her last ounce of strength, she held up her soul gem, and I destroyed it." Tears ran down Mami's cheeks. "In one night, I saw every friend I had die, I even killed my dearest friend, but I still went on. To me, my worst moment was that I justified it and allowed myself to go on with bitter indignation, doing things for her that she would never want. But, in the end, it led me here and now, and for that I can forgive myself. They say not to let the ends justify the means, but sometimes you have to, because sometimes, some things are too important to let go, no matter what the cost."

Mami nodded and laid her head on my shoulder, staying there until she fell asleep.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"So you really are there," I said to the sky out my window as I sat on my bed, Mami's breathing behind me as she slept the only other sound I could hear. "My dearest friend." I pulled the ribbon she gave me from my pocket and tied my hair into a ponytail. "What will happen when Madoka makes her wish? Will you still exist? Will you come back?" Mami moved, and I looked back at her, making sure she hadn't woken up. "You are my best friend, and you always will be, but..."

"You said that Madoka sent you back here?" she asked.

"She did," I replied.

"What was life like for you before you came back?" she asked. "After she made her wish."

"It was... Lonely," I admitted. "Sayaka was still gone, so it was just the three of us. There were no witches anymore, but there were monsters in their place, having the same effect on people. Without Madoka, all there was for me was the fight, knowing that she was there with me, protecting me. So I fought. I killed as many of them as I could, until I couldn't fight anymore, and then I kept on killing. Toward the end, I only stopped to eat or sleep, and even then I only did so when I had to. I thought that if I destroyed them all, maybe I could bring Madoka back to me; that maybe if she didn't have to destroy the girls before they became witches then maybe she could stop being a goddess and come back to being my friend. After my last fight in that world, I broke down and realized that nothing was going to bring her back. And as I lay on the ground, staring up at the sky, debris from the fight raining down around me, I saw her come down to me. I couldn't hear her, but somehow I knew that she had finally come back for me. I smiled for the first time since I began my crusade."

"You love her, don't you?" Mami asked with feigned disinterest.

"Love..." I said. "No. Not as you understand it, at least. What would you give up to have you parents back? What would you do if you knew that they were going to die?"

"I'd do whatever I had to do to save them," she replied resolutely.

"And when you failed to save them, if you could, would you go back and try again?" I asked.

"Of course," she said, sounding a little less sure of herself.

"How many times?" I asked. "Would you try again and again until you finally died, no matter what they said they wanted, or would you move on when you realized that it was impossible? I never had that choice; I always knew what I had to do, no matter how hard it became. I had to save Madoka. I _still_ have to save her. It's not love, but something else; an indescribable pull on my soul that tells me that she is the single most important thing in the universe, even now. Not to me, but to everything."

"I'm glad," she replied with a soft smile. "I'm very glad to hear that." I turned and watched as she curled up, still facing away from me, and fell back to sleep.

I held my hand over her for a moment. I brushed the hair off her face and kissed her cheek before lying down and going to sleep.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

The dream world was dark when it started. "You should know this," I heard, less a voice than a thought in my head, and different from our telepathy. "I would not show you if it did not matter, but Sayaka may have found her salvation in kindred spirits."

Sight and sound began to fade in, and I found myself watching Sayaka sitting in the train station. An apple fell into her lap from above.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

Author's Notes:

I present to you, fans of shipping, Mami x Homura, and something else. But Homura's backstory... Tell me that I'm not the only one who thought she'd drive herself mad having lost Madoka forever. Oh, and it gets worse. And it gets graphic. And you get to see it in the form of a nightmare. A _shared_ nightmare. Because _someone_ felt like being a dick, even though he doesn't understand the concept of spite.


	8. Chapter Eight: The Soul Borrower

Chapter Eight: The Soul Borrower and the Symphony Prayer

Ms. Saotome finished her lecture and released the class for lunch. Hitomi, Madoka, and Sayaka left together, talking amongst themselves, and Kamijo walked back to my desk.

"Can I speak with you?" he asked, trying to hide the urgency in his voice. "Privately."

I looked over as the last person left the classroom, leaving us alone. "What do you need?" I replied.

He placed his violin case on my desk and walked to the front of the room. With the press of a button, the windows tinted opaque; a feature added since the attack. He retuned to my desk and opened his violin case. He pulled the violin from the case and, steadying his breathing, he began to play Ave Maria.

My vision began to dim as I became entranced by the music. The world faded out as the room changed to the train station from my dream.

"Talk to me," Kyoko said from out of sight as the apple dropped from the ceiling into Sayaka's hand. "Something's going on, and I want in on it."

"There's nothing to get in on," Sayaka replied disdainfully.

Kyoko dropped onto the bench on which Sayaka sat, a plastic grocery bag in her hand. "You don't like me," she said as she pulled a snack cake from the bag and began to eat it, crumbs falling all over her; she was wearing, uncharacteristically, a well-worn red windbreaker and stained blue jeans, and her hair was braided. "I get that. I can't say that I blame you; I wouldn't like me if I were you. But don't lie to me. We're part of the same team."

"You need to work on your manners," Sayaka replied with stressed indifference.

"Fine," Kyoko huffed. She devoured the rest of the snack cake in one bite. "Will you _please_ tell me what's going on? There was an attack at your school, right?"

"Yeah," Sayaka said, still impassive toward the girl beside her. "But we took care of it."

Kyoko picked a rock up off the ground and hurled it as hard as she could into the darkness. The sound of breaking concrete echoed through the train station. "Damn it!" she shouted. "I want to help you! Are you too dense to see that?"

"I know what you're trying to do," Sayaka replied, "but I don't want your help. I don't trust you. Why would you _want_ to help me? What do you get out of it?"

"It's because I know what you tried to wish for," Kyoko admitted, her voice fading from anger to melancholy as she spoke. "I know you tried to help someone, and that they can't ever know what you did for them, and I know how much you want to go over to him, grab him by the jacket, and shout into his face, 'I did this for you! Appreciate me!'" On the verge of tears, she took in a deep breath, trying to relax herself. "Deep down, that's why you did it, right?"

"Yeah," Sayaka replied. With traces of faint and unplaceable emotion finally showing on her face, she turned away from Kyoko, avoiding the girl next to her.

"That's why we make selfless wishes," Kyoko said, as much to herself as to Sayaka, her voice verging on the compassionate. "We want to help the people we care about, but, after a while, no matter why we think we did it, we realize that want them to be grateful to us for what we did; we want to be as important to them as they are to us."

"Why do you care?" Sayaka asked, any trace of her previous indignation or uncaring attitude now replaced by genuine sadness. "Honestly, why are you worried about a monster like me?"

"Jeeze, you're still stuck on that?" Kyoko replied flippantly, snapping herself out of her previous downheartedness. "Us monsters have to stick together. And besides, I like you. You remind me of myself, in an annoying, holier-than-thou sort of way."

"Well, thanks, I guess," Sayaka said.

"Any time," Kyoko replied before standing up and stretching. She started to walk away.

"Wait," Sayaka said. Kyoko turned her head back toward her newly-declared friend. "Before you go... Why did you come here?"

"To keep you from doing something stupid," she replied.

"No, why did you _really_ come here?" Sayaka asked.

Kyoko was struck silent for a moment. "I was lonely," she muttered.

"Wait, what?" Sayaka asked, confused.

"I said you're an idiot and you need to grow up!" Kyoko snapped with renewed forte before storming off.

Sayaka turned her attention to the apple in her hands and took a bite, smiling to herself.

The scene faded out, returning my consciousness to the room in which I sat. "That..." I started to say as Kamijo put his violin back in his case.

"It started happening last night," he said before I could finish, sitting in the desk next to mine. "When I was rehearsing. What did you see?"

"Just a dream I had last night," I replied. He frowned, clearly displeased with my answer. "Who else knows?"

"Hitomi," he replied.

"Good," I said. "Until it can be resolved, you must not play your violin."

"I agree, but..." he started, not wanting to finish his thought.

"I will figure this out," I said.

There was an uncomfortable silence in the room as we sat, neither of us wanting to be the one to say what he was thinking. "I want to tell Sayaka that I know about my hand," he said at last.

"What will you tell her?" I asked, returning to my usual disinterested attitude. "Will you tell her that you're grateful for what she did? Will you tell her that you love her? That you want to be with her forever?"

"No," he replied quickly. "I want her to know that I'm thankful for what she did; for allowing me to play my violin again."

"If you tell her that, she'll kill herself," I said, my impartial attitude wavering.

Kamijo almost fell out of his seat in shock. "How can you say that?" he demanded.

"Because she loves you, you idiot!" I shouted, allowing myself to break my composure. "She didn't make her wish so you could play your violin again! She did it because she wanted you to be happy! She wanted to be the one to make you happy!" I calmed my voice. "Death, for her, will not come swiftly, and it will not come peacefully. She will become a monster greater than the one which attacked you; more malevolent, and with an all-consuming desire to be loved that can never be filled, as it would reject even your love, thinking it false." I paused, allowing a short moment for what I had said to sink in. "If you truly consider her a friend, if you care for her at all, then you must not tell her."

He swallowed hard. "Alright," he said timidly. "I won't tell her."

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"Shizuki Hitomi, I need to speak to you about the violin rehearsal you watched yesterday," I said as I walked up to her from behind; she and Sayaka sat on the roof of the school, watching the people on the ground below go about their business.

Hitomi stiffened up as I spoke. She turned around slowly and nodded, and Sayaka let out a slow sigh. "Go ahead," she said without turning around, instead half-shrugging her shoulders. "You want to know what she saw, right?"

"Yes," I replied.

"I saw myself getting married to Kamijo," Hitomi said. "He and-"

"Is this because of my wish?" Sayaka asked impatiently.

"It is something I have never seen before, so I cannot say for sure," I replied. "However, I believe that it is more likely a result of his contact with the witch than with your wish. The effect is very similar to what she did to me."

"It is a lie so convincing as to deceive reality," Hitomi said wistfully.

"It is something which warrants-" I started before blacking out.

After what felt like a few seconds of darkness, I found myself staring down from the rafters of an old church, a trickle of rain water spilling in through the rotting roof. Amber light from the nearly-set sun filled the hall, filtering in through the clouds and the stained glass window at the front. Kyoko sat on the alter, facing the window, her head in her hands. Quiet sobs filled the room, which all but hid the sound of footsteps as Sayaka slowly approached.

As Sayaka reached Kyoko, she stood still, nervous, her outstretched hand inches from Kyoko's shoulder. "Every time I'm here, I hear it," Kyoko said, wiping her eyes but keeping her head down. "I-I hear the screams... Her screams... The, uh... The only thing I can remember about her is the screaming."

"I'm sorry," Sayaka said hesitantly. "I... I shouldn't be here. I-I should..." She started to pull her hand back, but Kyoko grabbed it before she could.

"Please, don't leave me," Kyoko plead as she turned her head toward Sayaka, tears streaming from her eyes. "Not tonight. Please, just... Sit with me."

"A-Alright," Sayaka replied, in shock at the sight before her; it was far cry from the usual indignant loner attitude. Kyoko slid over and dropped her head again, and Sayaka took a seat on the alter.

They sat in silence until the sun had finished setting, neither acknowledging the other. "My father was the pastor here," Kyoko said finally. She lifted her head, looking at the sky through the window, and pulled a Pocky stick from her pocket. "This church was his life's work. He struggled every day to bring home enough to feed us, but he loved what he did. And when people stopped coming... I knew, I really knew, my father was right, so I wished people would listen to him. And they did; they came back, more and more every day, obsessing over whatever he said. But when he found out my wish was what brought people back, he just sort of..." She snapped the Pocky stick between her fingers and let it fall to the ground. "He killed my mom and I that night, before killing himself. I don't know how, but I came back. I guess Kyubey built me a new body or something." There was a long pause; Kyoko watched the light fade from the horizon, lost in her thoughts again, and Sayaka sat aghast at the revelation. "It was a year ago today." Sayaka couldn't bring herself to speak. Instead, she took Kyoko's hand and smiled weakly. "What's your family like?"

"They're nice, I guess," Sayaka replied, her smile quickly fading. "Not that I ever get to see them. My dad's a diplomat for the government, so he's really not around much, and my mom's just not interested in me; she'd rather just give me money and have me take care of myself than do anything. I guess Madoka's more of a family to me than they are."

There was another uncomfortable pause. "Would you take back your wish if you could?" Kyoko asked, her voice hinting at optimism.

Sayaka thought about it for a moment. "No," she said. "I don't think I would. Kyosuke's happy now, and I can protect the people I love. I guess my soul's a small price to pay for that. Would you?"

Kyoko didn't answer; she didn't need to answer, and again they sat in silence. "My father was a bastard," she said after a while. "I loved him, but God damn, was he ever a bastard. Everything was for this church. Never his family; always the church. The world's better off without him." She pulled a box of dumplings from her jacket and tore into them, taking her hand from Sayaka's grip.

Sayaka waited for Kyoko to finish eating before saying, "Why don't you just leave? Go somewhere far away and forget about him."

"Could you leave," she asked, turning to Sayaka, "if this was the only link you had to your family? I hate him. I really hate him, but he's not the one I come here to remember." The painful silence returned. "Come on." She stood up and began walking to the back of the church. Sayaka followed.

She opened a small side-door and walked in. The air in the room was stagnant and oppressive, and the color of rust covered much of the wood floor. There was no furniture in the room, save for a small, empty shrine at the back. Kyoko walked over to it and began to pray silently.

A minute later, she stood and walked back to Sayaka, who had remained at the door. "Can I... Ask you for a favor?" Kyoko asked quietly, avoiding eye contact. "Can I spend the night over at your place?"

"Uh, sure," Sayaka replied, surprised by the request. "I'm there alone for the rest of the week while my parents are away on vacation. But why?"

"I want to feel like I have a home again, even if it's just for one night," Kyoko replied before walking out of the church, head down, hands buried deep into the pockets of her red jacket.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

The walk across town to Sayaka's apartment had been uncomfortably silent, least of all from the lack of conversation; neither girl wanted to speak, Sayaka out of fear that she'd set off Kyoko's wrath, Kyoko afraid of revealing something she'd later regret. The awkwardness came instead from the fact that there was no wind and no traffic, and nothing around them seemed to move, as though the world had stopped.

Sayaka opened the door to her apartment and said, "Here we are." She took off her coat and shoes and went over to the blinking answering machine.

She pressed the play button, and it chimed and played the message. "Hey Sayaka," said the voice of her mother, who was clearly intoxicated. "You weren't answering your cell, so I left a message on here. Your father and I have decided that we're going to move to the embassy in Spain for a few months while he does his job. I'll keep sending you money, and you're a big girl, so it's not like you need us there. If you need anything, call me tomorrow, but only if it's important."

The message cut out, and Sayaka shot a meaningful glance to Kyoko. "Like I said," she said with a shrug.

"Your mom sounds like a bitch," Kyoko said frankly as she took off her jacket.

"Your dad sounds like a nice enough guy, the whole murder thing aside," Sayaka replied, her voice tinged with enmity.

Kyoko pulled off one of her shoes and tossed it against the wall. "Take it back!" she demanded.

"Don't throw things in my house," Sayaka ordered. "You'll break something."

"Go to hell," Kyoko snapped as she took off her other shoe and walked into the living room, shoving Sayaka aside in the process. She sat on the couch and crossed her arms.

Sayaka sighed and walked over to her. "You're right; I'm sorry," she said. "That was uncalled for."

"Thank you," Kyoko replied, still severely torqued. "What do you have to eat in this place?"

She thought for a moment. "I might have some popcorn I can make," she replied, walking into the kitchen. She dug through the cupboards before pulling out a bag of microwave popcorn and sticking it in the microwave. She pressed a button and walked out as it started. She grabbed the television remote from the side table and handed it to Kyoko. "You can find something on television, if you want. Or rent a movie on Pay-Per-View."

Kyoko turned on the television and flipped to the movie channels as Sayaka returned to the kitchen. Satisfied with her find, she started the movie. "Hurry up or you'll miss it," she said.

Sayaka pulled the bag from the microwave and poured it into a bowl before taking it into the living room. On the television was the Japanese dub of The Green Lantern.

"I've always liked this movie," Sayaka said as she sat down next to Kyoko. "A classic good beats evil story." Kyoko laughed. "What?"

"Good doesn't beat evil," she replied. "Evil gets cocky and makes a mistake, and good just happens to be smart enough to take advantage of it, most of the time."

"I'll do it," Sayaka muttered.

"You will, will you?" Kyoko said mockingly.

"Yes, I will," Sayaka snapped back defiantly. "I'll save everyone."

"That's bullshit and you know it," Kyoko said before taking a handful of popcorn.

"It's not bullshit!" Sayaka objected. "It's the right thing to do!"

"You can't save everyone," Kyoko insisted, readying another handful of popcorn. "The only ones you can save are the ones around you; trying to save everyone is impossible."

"I don't care!" Sayaka shouted. "I'll do it!" Kyoko laughed again. "What now?"

"Why do you even care?" she asked. "What makes you give a damn about people?"

"It's just who I am," Sayaka said half-heartedly.

"Yeah; sure," Kyoko laughed.

They watched the rest of the movie in relative silence, with the exception of the occasional one-line jab at the other's ideology, or at what one side or the other in the movie could have done better.

"Bed or couch?" Sayaka asked as she stood up.

"What?" Kyoko asked, confused.

"Do you want to sleep in my bed or on the couch?" Sayaka asked again.

"Couch," Kyoko replied quickly. "I don't like you _that_ much."

Sayaka thought for a second before shaking her head violently. Kyoko burst into laughter and Sayaka ran off to her room, returning a few minutes later with an armful of bedding. "Where do you live?" Sayaka asked as she handed it to Kyoko. "You can't pay rent, right?"

"There's an old apartment building on the far edge of town that I own," Kyoko replied as she unfolded the blankets.

"You 'own' it?" Sayaka asked, skeptical.

"I won it in a poker game," Kyoko replied. "The guy who lost it to me was just going to have it torn down and sell off the land."

"How do you keep it running?" Sayaka asked. "You can't pay the electricity or water."

"The water comes from an aquifer," Kyoko said, laying down. "And it's got solar panels on the roof for electricity. The walls are made from a self-repairing concrete that was too expensive to become popular, and everything else I need I just take from the other apartments."

Sayaka thought for a moment. "Have you ever thought about renting out the other apartments?" she asked.

"And have people running around my nice, quiet apartment? Are you crazy?" Kyoko asked with half a smile. "Besides, I can't afford to fix it up enough to allow people to live there. As you keep pointing out, I have no money."

"I'll pay for it," Sayaka replied. "We can do the work together, in our spare time."

"Why?" Kyoko asked, anger tugging at her voice. "Why do you even give a damn? People aren't supposed to care about others. That just makes you miserable when they let you down. That bullshit idealism is just going to kill you."

"I want to feel like I'm doing something good, alright?" Sayaka admitted. "My parents never cared much about me, and I just want to feel like I'm important."

Kyoko was stunned by the honesty of the admission. "You're important to Madoka," she said. "Even someone as blind as you should be able to see that."

"It's not enough," Sayaka replied. "I want to be important to the world; to everyone."

"As much as I hate to say this, my dad did give me one good piece of advice," Kyoko sighed. "Save the ones you can, and pray for the ones you can't. I'm sure someone up there is listening to a girl as painfully idealistic as you."

"Whatever," Sayaka said, dismissing the advice. "It's not like that'll exactly help me sleep at night. Goodnight." She walked back into her bedroom and tossed herself onto her bed, falling asleep still in her clothes.

Reality snapped back, and I found myself once again on the roof of the school.

"Are you alright?" Hitomi asked, looking a bit surprised. "You just sort of..."

"You were out for about five minutes," Sayaka said, still staring down at the people below.

"I do not feel well," I replied. "I am going home."

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

I walked down the empty street in one of the upper-class neighborhoods of town. The sun was low in the sky, its amber light painting fire onto the windows of the towers in the distant city. Dark clouds drew in from the horizon, prospecting rain before the night was out.

"Oh, hello, Homura," Hitomi said as she stepped outside, a bag of garbage in her hand. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yes," I replied, more to serve my ends than as a statement of fact. "I need your help with Kyosuke."

"Is this about what happens when he plays his-" she started.

Once again, I found myself outside my body, this time walking into Sayaka's room. It quickly became obvious that the eyes though which I was watching were not my own, as a lock of red hair fell in front of my face, and a hand brushed it out of the way. My host stopped at the foot of Sayaka's bed for a moment before quickly snapping around and walking out again.

"-violin?" Hitomi finished. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I said as I recoiled from having my mind forcefully pulled from my body for the second time in one day. "He does not seem to have listened to my order that he not play until the situation is resolved."

"What do you need me to do?" she asked, hiding her apprehension.

"Take me to him," I said.

"Alright," she said warily. "Come inside and I'll call to make sure he's at home." She threw the bag of garbage in the bin and turned around. I followed her into her home. "Please, take a seat. It'll only be a moment." I took a seat on the couch, and she on one of the chairs.

The world went dark again, except for Hitomi, who was now standing before me in total shock. "Welcome to my new home," said a familiar, soft voice from the darkness. "I'm glad you finally decided to seek me out. We have much to discuss."

"I thought I killed you," I replied, not bothering to hide my animosity.

"Um, Homura?" Hitomi asked, deeply scared. "Is that..."

"Do not be alarmed, child," Sofie replied. "You are in no danger here." The sound of metal sliding against metal echoed through the darkness. "You destroyed the lotus-eater machine that I had become, but I am immortal, remember?" The sound of sliding metal grew louder. "I, myself, do not understand how it works, only that my consciousness can never die, unless, perhaps, another wish is made to counter or reverse mine." The sound grew louder still, and a figure began to appear; light reflected off what was little more than a point in the darkness. "I remembered who I was, once." Her body began to gain definition; she strode forward, gleaming steel armor over blue, gold-embroidered robes, her long, light-brown hair streaming down over her armor. "They used to call me Jeanne d'Arc, in my homeland. I imagine that they still do.

"That was the fifth body I've had, though the only time an attack has ever damaged my soul in the tiniest bit. To answer your impending question, I bind my soul to a magical force when my body is destroyed. Usually, I pull the grief from the poor magical girls around me, but I had to pull on something far more powerful than that this time; a force of impossible was needed for me to survive. I needed a miracle. Fortunately, I was already tied to Kyosuke Kamijo, and his entire body surges with the impossible."

"But did you really wish to be immortal?" Hitomi asked, still somewhat guarded in the presence of a supposedly-dead former-witch.

Sofie smiled. "In a manner of speaking," she replied. "I wished that I would be able to fight forever in the service of the Lord. We all know how well Kyubey obeys the spirit of the wish."

"Why are you pulling my mind from my body again?" I asked crossly.

Sofie's smile faded quickly. "I am not," she said. "Not when you think I was, at least; I have now to as we must speak, and the dream you had was an act of benevolence, which was the trigger catalyst for his current actions. When I began to draw on his energy, it appears as though Kyosuke began to draw on me, as well. That boy has a magnificent mind, you know. He _thinks_ in music."

"You can read his mind?" Hitomi asked, terrified.

"Not read, no," Sofie replied with a shake of her head. "I can read your mind, in that it is a willful action, but with him it's more that his consciousness is being fed into mine. He could do the same to me, as well, if he were more in-tune with the miracle inside him. I suppose it is our fortune that he is not. If he could, there's no telling what he'd be able to do. Perhaps the whole of the world would be as beautiful as his mind, but it is better that it is not."

"How do we stop him, then?" I asked.

Sofie sighed. "I fear that the only way to stop him for good is for the link between us to be broken, but such would kill me," she said. "As I cannot die, I have become a constant in the universe, and were I to die, the universe would become unstable and fall apart, as though an integral pillar had been suddenly and forcefully removed. If the universe falls apart, then I am no longer, creating a paradox. Therefore, our only course of action seems impossible."

Hitomi looked over at me, a deep and understanding horror in her eyes. "No," I said firmly. "I cannot allow that."

Sofie laughed. "I am so sorry, dear," she said. "I completely forgot about you. Yes, you could make a wish, but I agree with Homura: You cannot be allowed to contract with Kyubey, for your own good."

"But if there's no other way-" Hitomi started.

"No," I said sharply, cutting her off. "There is another way. There must be."

"How, then?" Hitomi asked, on the verge of a breakdown.

"You don't know what he sees when he plays, do you?" Sofie asked. "The reason he plays, even though he knows what it's doing."

"I do not," I replied.

"He pulls you into the dream because it allows him to fall into a dream of his own," she explained. The feeling of fingernails across my skin ran down my spine. "He is using your consciousness to channel visions, because of your unique ability to travel across time. He is also using your abilities to do something I call 'consciousness compression', which is similar to how you can live a day in a dream in only a few minutes. He's doing all of this to spy on Sayaka, and your watching of it is simply a side effect of being the conduit. He even used Hitomi to find out what she knew about Sayaka. Though, unlike with you, he saw her memories while she saw her dreams."

"He feels guilty," I said, pulling at the most obvious string I could find. "He wants to thank her, but he can't, so, instead, he watches her."

"He thinks in music," she replied. "Harmonies, consonance and dissonance, chords, arpeggios, and progressions; these are his tools. He knows how miserable she is, and he truly believes that if he can understand what's going on in her life, he can help solve it and repay her for what she did for him. But even now he doesn't realize just how much he means to her."

"Could we convince him that she's fine?" Hitomi asked.

"That would be beyond impossible," I replied. "But we might be able to convince him that he needs to stop. Can you bring him in here, Sofie?"

"I can try," she replied. Her eyes closed, and she began to breathe in deep, slow breathes.

In an instant, Kamijo appeared before them. "What's going on?" he asked, shocked by the sudden change.

"You must stop spying on Sayaka," I ordered.

He took several unsteady steps backward. "How..." he started.

"You are using me as a means to watch her," I said, matching his steps, keeping the distance between us the same. I spoke calmly and with force enough to shake his nerves. "Everything you have seen, I have seen. You cannot save her simply by resolving the dissonance and building proper chords. You cannot simply fix the kinds of problems she has and expect her to get better; she is full of regret and loathing and sadness that you on your darkest days could not understand. The only way she can have resolution is to have someone remind her that she's making a difference in the world, and if you can't do that, then you're just going to get in the way."

"I can't just leave her alone," he insisted, finally standing his ground. "I owe her a debt, and my honor as a man says that I have to do whatever I can to help her."

"Damn it, Kamijo!" Hitomi shouted at him as she ran over grabbed him by the jacket. "She's not the only one who wanted to help you! I would have sold my soul to do it, too! She's just the only one who had the chance! What she did sucks! It's terrible! She hates herself every moment of her life because she couldn't be altruistic, but nothing you're doing is helping! If you want to thank her or help her, then stop hurting the people trying to take care of her! And if you want to actually _do_ something for her, then fall in love with her!"

"I-I thought you wanted me," he stammered, shocked by the sudden boldness of her actions and words.

"I do," she replied. Her grip tightened, and any anger she'd previously had was now missing from her voice. "But I'd rather live with you as a friend than live without her at all." She pulled him in and kissed him full on the lips. He stood in shock until she released him. "You know what you have to do."

"I-I c-can't..." he stammered, falling backward. "This... This isn't real. It can't be real... I'm... I'm dreaming..."

"An apt term," Sofie said.

He turned to her. She smiled. He fainted.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

Author's Note:

Louder than sirens, louder than bells; sweeter than heaven and hotter than hell.

I've decided to try out a different writing style. It's considerably more narrative, and is one I'm far more comfortable with, which I'm hoping will allow me to express my ideas better than I was before. Time and inspiration permitting, I'm also going to rewrite much of the story up to this point, making it considerably, well, better.

And, as I am want to do, this chapter was inspired by a number of sources, particularly music. Namely, Florence + The Machine, with the songs "Drumming Song" and "No Light, No Light". There's also another source which feeds the Sayaka/Kyoko argument on saving everyone (bonus points if you can guess it), even if Homura is more of an archer than Kyoko.

Also, it was originally going to be Madokami who was speaking to Homura at the end of the last chapter, but I decided that it would set a dangerous precedent, in that I'd be very tempted to use her as a deus ex machina when I got stuck. So, instead, it's just a dead witch who didn't really die and isn't really a witch anymore.

Finally, if you're up for something Madoka Magica-related but completely different, check out my new story, "Refuge in Audacity: MSHM". The first chapter is what happens when you get me feeling nostalgic for a move I've been watching since I was 6.

In other news, I'm also going to be starting _another_ story (by the name of "Secrets of the Broken Messiahs" (look up Broken Messiah on TVTropes if you're confused)), which runs parallel to this one, starting with this chapter, and contains the Sayaka/Kyoko side-story. There won't be anything important in there that isn't explained in here as though the side-story didn't exist, so worry not.


	9. Chapter Nine: The Children Death Saved

Chapter Nine: The Children That Death Saved

"It's alright," Sofie said, "I just put him in his own world. I will explain to him the situation when he is calm."

"How do you know he'll cooperate?" I asked as I walked back over to her.

"I do not plan on giving him a choice," she replied. "He will realize, whether he wants to or not, that this is the only course of action he will be allowed to take. As for the two of you, now would be an appropriate time for us to part ways. I'll... Be in touch."

With that, reality snapped back, returning us to Hitomi's living room. I stood, and the image of Kyoko sleeping on Sayaka's couch flashed into my mind for an instant.

"A parting gift," I heard Sofie say. "You handle Madoka and Hitomi, I will handle Kamijo, and those two will handle each other."

"I should not need to say this," I said, turning to Hitomi, who was still in shock over having returned so suddenly to her home, "but you are not to speak about what has happened to anyone, especially not Sayaka."

She nodded.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

I pulled my glasses from the drawer of my nightstand and looked through them backward, my mind empty save an aching tiredness pervading my senses. The rain had come, and was now a torrential downpour. The heavy drops pounded against the walls and windows of my apartment, filling it with the sound of the storm.

With a sigh, I folded the glasses back up and returned them to my nightstand before getting up and walking to the kitchen. I filled the tea kettle and set it on the stove before lighting the burner and preparing my teacup. As the kettle whistled, there was a knock on the door.

I shut off the burner and answered the door. Without a word, Mami walked in. Her expression, her entire demeanor, was emotionless and empty. She tried to smile, but barely managed to move as she stumbled in.

She pulled off her jacket and hung it by the door before sitting on the couch. I returned to the kitchen after locking the door, pulled another cup from the cupboard, and poured the tea, bringing both cups to the living room. Mami took her cup from me and sipped her tea for a few moments before putting it down in front of her.

We sat in silence as she took her time with her tea. Afterward, she stood up and walked to my bedroom.

I finished my tea before returning to bed.

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"You are certainly fond of her, aren't you?" Sofie asked. She was nowhere to be seen, and I could still feel my bed below me. "She shows up unannounced, doesn't say so much as a word, hardly conscious, and goes to bed in your bed, and it does not affect you in any way."

"Why are you here?" I made no attempt to hide my annoyance.

"If you're worried about it affecting your sleep, you need not," she replied. "The dream analogy is more apt than I first thought: When I pull your consciousness when you are awake, your body enters a state of deep sleep; REM sleep, if your knowledge is accurate."

"I do not find that comforting," I said, my ire growing.

"Well, at any rate, I do not believe that informing her as to my existence would prove beneficial," she said, ignoring my ever-increasing aggravation. "She may look strong, but she is far more fragile than she lets off. She is, particularly now, a million fractured pieces held together with little more than hope and prayers; hope that you will feel about her as she does about you, the guardian she has claimed for her own in her mad delusions, and prayers to whoever or whatever is listening. Your Madokami, perhaps."

"Madokami?" I asked.

"A portmanteau of her name, 'Madoka', and your word for supernatural force, 'kami'," she replied.

"What do you mean, 'my word'? You're the one using it."

"Though it is likely what you hear, I am not speaking Japanese," she said. "Rather, I speak in ideas and, in my very limited scope, emotions. In other words, I speak in the natural language of the brain. Your mind interprets what I send it, providing you with some analogue of speech."

Confusion replaced my aggravation. "What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Words are only a representation for ideas and emotions," she replied. "They are only useful for communication if the idea engendered in both the speaker and the listener are the same. For example, the English word 'demand' is pronounced similarly enough to the French word 'demande', though they have quite different meanings; the French 'demande' is closer to your word 'saisoku' and the English 'request', while the English 'demand' is closer to the French 'exigences' or your 'juyou', which also can have the same meaning as the French 'demande', depending on the context. The Japanese 'juyou' also sounds fairly similar to the way you would pronounce the English 'joy' or French 'joyie', which would be similar to your word 'yorokobi'." I was silent, unable to think of a suitable response. "You see? Even a conversation on meanings leads to confusion in meanings. Instead, I provide your mind with the ideas I wish to convey and let it interpret the meanings in terms which you will understand."

"But if you are expressing yourself in ideas which I then interpret, how are you saying specific words which I have never heard before?" I asked.

"Words, themselves are ideas; the ideas of the joining together of sounds which represent other ideas, that is the idea which the word represents," she replied.

"May I return to resting in peace now? You know I can resist you if I try, but, as you pose yourself as an ally, I am trying to show you respect."

"I will leave you now, then," she said. "But before I do, you should know that Kyosuke Kamijo will not be attending school tomorrow. He is fine, but he is having a hard time accepting the fact that I have bound myself to his soul."

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

I sat in my desk before class, my eyes closed, trying to avoid the inevitable storm of questions.

"Where's Kyosuke?" Sayaka asked as she sat down at her desk.

"I-I think he's ill," Hitomi said from her seat, her voice betraying her the lie.

"Oh," Sayaka replied, dejected. "I bought him-"

"Hey," came a familiar, unusually chipper voice from the doorway.

"Kyoko!" Sayaka shouted in shock. I opened my eyes. Kyoko stood in the doorway, school bag in hand, dressed in a proper, if slightly ill-fitting, uniform. "What are you doing here!"

"I transferred here this morning," she replied. "Someone has to make sure you don't go doing something stupid again."

"Oh, hello, Kyoko," Madoka said cheerfully as she walked past on the way into class. "I'm glad you found the classroom."

"I just followed Sayaka's ma-" Kyoko started, catching herself.

"The class is already aware of our nature," I said, closing my eyes again, now suppressing a building headache.

Kyoko laughed. "Alright!" She quickly changed into her alternate form and tossed her bag across the room. It landed on one of the unused desks in the back.

"Kyoko!" Sayaka shouted. "You'll get in trouble if you wear that! Just because the class knows, that doesn't mean the entire school does! Where did you get that uniform, anyway?"

"I just borrowed one of yours," Kyoko replied as she jumped from desk to desk, making her way to the seat she'd chosen. She returned to her normal form and took a seat. "It's a bit tight, but I think it looks pretty good on me." She thought for a second, and a wry smile hit her lips. "Not as good as it looks on you, though."

Sayaka blushed wildly and Kyoko burst into laughter. "Settle down, class," Ms. Saotome said as she walked into class. "We've got a new student, who seems to be running..." She looked around the classroom and noticed the still-laughing Kyoko at her desk. "Well, I see you've already met her. Sakura Kyoko, come up and introduce yourself, please."

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"Um... Ho-Homura? I-I think there's something wrong with Mami..." Madoka said nervously as class was released. "She... She was wearing her uniform in the school."

I leapt out of my desk with as much force as I could. "Where was she heading?" I demanded. Madoka backed away a bit. "Which way?"

"T-Toward the stairs."

I ran out of the room at full speed, shoving the crowd out of the way as I went. I kicked the door to the stairwell open and began up the stairs.

"No more!" I heard Mami scream, her voice cracking, as I approached the door to the roof from the staircase. I leapt up the final set of stairs and threw the door open. She held her rifle extended at Kyubey. It shook; her arm, her entire body, shook with anger. "I'm done! I can't take it anymore! You stole my soul! You made me kill! You made _all of us_ kill! You created monsters! You! You killed all those people! Innocent girls!"

I walked toward her slowly. "Then it's sunk in; exactly what has happened," I said as I stopped, half way to her. She began to sob disconsolately, but her focus remained on her target. "I won't stop you, if that's what you want."

"Why?" she asked. "Why won't you help me?"

"Because you want absolution," I replied. "You want someone to make you feel like what you've done is still good; that Kyubey's idea of a higher good supersedes your own moral complaints. You want someone to absolve you of what you have done. I cannot provide those things for you."

"Then what good are you?" she snapped.

I walked over and embraced her from behind, my arms wrapping loosely around her body. "You and I are just stumbling through the darkness, doing the best we can," I said in as gentle of a voice as I could. I sighed and rested my chin on her shoulder. "Some things are beyond what you or I can hope to understand. You and I just have to keep going as best we can and hope that, by the time it's all done, we can do more good than harm. We have to keep believing that what we do, whatever we do, is the right thing; we have to keep believing that we're doing the best we can."

The inconsolate sobs returned as she lowered her gun and hugged her chest tightly. "Please," she begged, "tell me I did the right thing... I... I want to scream. I want to run and never stop. I want to get out of here and forget all of this. I can't take it!" The tears streamed down her cheeks. "I can't do it... Please, no more..."

"I'm sorry," I said as I held her as tight as I could, her tears falling on my arms. "I'm so, so sorry. I forget that you are still a child; that even though I have known you for what is to me many decades... That you don't remember the horrors we saw. Go on. Kill it." I grab her hand with mine and steady the rifle at Kyubey.

"What's the point?"

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

"I want to go for a walk," Mami said as she stood from my couch. Her voice was unusually empty. "Will you..." I nodded. "Thank you."

She pulled on her coat and stood by the door as I got ready. We walked out of my apartment and into the darkness of the night. The wind had a sharp chill to it that was out of place for the season, as though more than the night air was blowing against us. Mami led silently, my hand in hers, as we walked down the empty streets.

"The train station?" I asked, a bit surprised about our apparent destination.

"I don't know why," she replied, "but I think this place is special, like it's where someone important to us is going to disappear." She paused. "Has anything happened here before? In one of your other worlds?"

I didn't reply, instead squeezing her hand a bit, reassuringly.

We walked inside, toward the platform. She sat on one of the benches, removed from the platform itself, and I sat next to her.

"I wasn't expecting to see you here," Hitomi said from behind me.

I stood and looked. She stood in the shadows, still wearing her school uniform. "You-"

"I made my choice," she said calmly, as if to reassure herself. "I meant what I said. This time, I was the one given a chance, and I took it."

"Do not be angry with her," said a familiar voice, missing its usual vaguely-condescending tone. Instead, the words sounded difficult and awkward. It echoed from within the train station, with the sound of footsteps following after, and I turned to the doorway from which the voice came. "She did what she thought best." Sofie walked out to us, dressed in her armor. Her eyes were filled with earnest sadness. "I do not wish that you think that I am ungrateful, but you should not have made that wish."

"So that's how you did it," I said, turning back to Hitomi, anger heavy in my voice. "You wished that she could have her own body again."

"I wished that Kyosuke was free of her."

Sofie walked over to Mami and laid her hands on her shoulders. "I am sorry. So very sorry. Please, forgive me," she said.

"Who are you?" Mami asked apprehensively. "I know your voice, but..."

Sofie hesitated before leaning forward and whispering something into Mami's ear. Mami fell over, sobbing on the bench. I knelt down next to her and ran my fingers through her hair, and she took my hand and squeezed it with all her strength. Sofie lowered her head and said, "Please, take care of her. I have decided to return to France. I am no longer a magical girl."

"I'm going with you," Hitomi said. "I need to get away from here. Away from _this_. I was already planning on visiting Europe after school finished."

"I welcome you to come with me," Sofie replied, the tone of her voice picking up for a moment.

Running footsteps echoed through the building, growing louder and louder. I turned toward them in time to see Madoka, Sayaka, and Kyoko running to us. "What's happening?" Sayaka asked, her sword at the ready. "H-Hitomi?"

"You and I are even now," Hitomi replied with a smile. "We've both given up our souls for him, and he doesn't even care for either of us. We must both be fools." She laughed. "I'm getting out of your way for a while so I can clear my head and figure out what to do from here. Don't have too much fun without me."

"Why?" Sayaka demanded. "Why did you do it?"

"Probably for the same reason you did," Hitomi replied with a shrug, her voice echoing through the building with vindictive satisfaction. "But that doesn't matter. I made my choice, and now I'm going to go figure out what I want to do with my life." She walked over to Sofie. "Come on, you can stay with me until we leave. I'll tell my parents that you're a student from France who came here for a visit."

"Thank you," Sofie replied. Hitomi led her off the train station platform.

"What's going on?" Sayaka asked.

"Um, Sayaka?" Madoka asked timidly. "I-I don't think you want to know."

Sayaka spun around quickly and glared at Madoka. "What do you know?" she asked.

"I... Um... I don't know," Madoka said, "but I think... Was that the witch?"

"Yes," I replied, lifting the recovering Mami into my arms. "That was Sofie, the witch who attacked the school."

Sayaka dropped her arm, letting it and the sword swing freely. "That's Sofie?" she asked. "How is that possible?"

"Are you sure you want to know?" I asked.

"Tell me!" she insisted.

"After we killed her, she bound her soul to the miracle you created inside of Kyosuke Kamijo," I explained. "Due to immortality caused by her wish, we merely destroyed the witch she had become, allowing her true consciousness to come out; if what she says is true, then we do not die and give birth to witches, but allow our malice to take over our minds, turning us into witches."

Sayaka returned to her normal form and sat down on the ground. "That's..." she said.

"That's the strangest God damn thing I've seen yet," Kyoko said.

"I wish I could do something for someone," Madoka lamented as she watched Hitomi and Sofie walk away. "I don't really have any talents, so it would be nice to be like that."

"Madoka, your gifts are more rare and more precious than any of ours," I said, also watching the two walk off under streetlamps. "You bind the world together; all things that are, are because of you. You cannot understand this, but everything that has happened up to this point is, in some way or another, because of you."

Madoka was stunned. "How can I be responsible for any of those things?" she asked after a long pause.

"You inspire the best in those around you," I replied. "You make us want to be better; to deserve what you give us."

She started to blush. "Um, thank you," she said meekly. "I'm really not that special."

"You are," I replied. "More than you can know."

／/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\＼

Author's Notes:

Yeah, this chapter's not that great. I've been sitting on it since about two weeks after my last update, but I haven't been able to think of a way to make it better. I've tried rewriting it, twice, but this is the best I could get it.

Sorry about the long wait, by the way. Life sort of got in the way, and this had to go on the back burner for a while. But, I'm back now, so you can all breathe a sigh of relief.

In other news, I have another major project in the works, one tied very closely to this story, in so much that it is this story, as told outside the PMMM universe, and in the form of a game. I can't say much more than that right now, but, as I intend to update more regularly, I'll have more to say on it soon enough.

In still other news, I have decided on the end of the story. I'd say more, but that might ruin it. Rosebud's the sled, but you already knew that.


End file.
